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KERSHNER    #    RELIGION    OF    CHRIST 


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THE  RELIGION 
OF  CHRIST 

An  Interpretation 


By 

FREDERICK  D.  KERSHNER,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  "How  to  Promote  Christian  Union," 
"Christian  Baptism/'  etc. 


CINCINNATI 

T«^  STANDARD  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Copyright,   1917 
The  Standard  Publishing  Company 


To 

GEORGE  W.   HARDIN 

in   Word  and  Deed 

a  Christian 


Introduction 

THIS  book  is  intended  to  present  a  rounded 
and  balanced  interpretation  of  the  Christian 
rehgion.  In  the  dual  division  of  vital  and 
formal  Christianity  many  perplexing  problems  are, 
we  believe,  adequately  solved.  The  division  of  vital 
Christianity  into  its  ethical  and  its  mystical  fea- 
tures, grouped  under  the  captions,  "The  Here  and 
Now"  and  "The  Hereafter,"  is  readily  recognized 
as  both  logical  and  comprehensive.  There  may  be 
some  difference  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  specifi- 
cation of  Righteousness,  Service  and  Freedom  as 
the  three  supreme  ideals  of  Jesus.  Perhaps  the 
majority  of  present-day  authorities  would  compre- 
hend the  subject  under  the  dual  division  of  Right- 
eousness and  Service,  the  one  as  representing  the 
individual  and  the  other  the  social  goal.  And  yet 
Freedom,  as  a  necessary  condition  of  both  Righteous- 
ness and  Service,  and  as  representing  the  principle 
most  often  violated  by  theologians  and  churchmen, 
deserves,  we  feel  sure,  a  place  of  its  own. 

There  may  be  some  readers  who  will  take  ex- 
ception to  the  unique  position  accorded  Christ  in 
moral  and  religious  history.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  especially  Isaiah  and  Micah, 
possessed  the  ethical  view  of  religion  quite  as  fully 
as  did  Jesus  himself.  Socrates  also,  and  divers  other 
teachers  of  the  ancient  world,  taught  the  same  ex- 
alted ideal.    And  yet,  speaking  in  a  large  and  com- 

s 


6  INTRODUCTION 

prehensive  way,  we  think  there  can  be  no  reasonable 
exception  taken  to  the  statement  that  Jesus  Christ 
made  the  ethical  ideal  in  religion  for  the  first  time 
a  world-wide  doctrine.  He  summed  up  the  teach- 
ing of  the  prophets  in  himself  and  he  made  articu- 
late the  dim  foreshado wings  of  better  things  in 
heathen  lands.  Just  as  Jesus  stands  at  the  center  of 
our  chronology,  so  he  stands  at  the  center  of  a  uni- 
versal ethic  expressed  in  terms  of  a  universal 
religion. 

The  position  taken  in  the  book  is,  of  course, 
frankly  ethical,  and  as  such  in  a  large  sense  non- 
sacramentarian.  The  character  ideal  in  Christianity 
is  regarded  as  the  essential  thing  first,  last,  and  all 
of  the  time.  Room  is  left  for  the  mystical  and 
spiritual  element,  but  it  is  frankly  recognized  that 
the  ethical  ideal  of  Jesus,  as  embodied  in  practical 
living,  is  the  one  ultimate  test  of  Christianity.  The 
necessity  for  formal  religion  is  fully  conceded,  as 
is  the  value  of  formal  correctness  in  our  interpreta- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  Christ,  but  this  formal  ele- 
ment is  never  exalted  to  a  place  where  it  supersedes 
the  vital.  Christian  character  is  bigger  than  the 
Christian  Church,  big  as  the  latter  is.  The  church 
exists  only  to  produce  character,  and,  failing  in  this, 
is  valueless  either  to  the  individual  or  to  society. 
Herein  lies  a  great  warning  for  the  church.  When- 
ever she  ceases  to  inspire  high  and  noble  ideals  in 
her  members,  she  is  already  on  the  high  road  to 
decay.  As  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse  puts  it, 
she  must  repent  and  do  her  first  works  or  else  her 
candlestick  will  be  taken  out  of  its  place. 


INTRODUCTION  ^ 

It  is  worth  considering  how  far  the  church  of 
Christ  to-day  is  really  doing  ''the  first  works" ; 
that  is,  emphasizing  and  developing  the  ideals  of 
Jesus  in  her  followers.  Unless  she  is  doing  this, 
she  is  on  the  certain  path  to  dissolution.  Such 
decay  is  no  impeachment  of  the  truthfulness  or 
power  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus,  rather  is  it  a  vindi- 
cation of  that  gospel.  The  church  may  array  her- 
self in  all  sorts  of  magical  robes  and  wrap  herself 
about  with  material  pomp  and  ceremony,  but,  unless 
she  is  really  serving  the  purpose  which  her  Founder 
intended  her  to  serve,  she  is  drifting  to  destruction. 

The  attacks  constantly  being  made  upon  organ- 
ized Christianity  by  the  foes  of  the  church  always 
gain  point  by  this  sort  of  dereliction.  Were  the 
church  really  true  to  the  principles  and  ideals  of  her 
Master,  most  opposition  would  cease.  Of  course, 
not  all  would  disappear,  for  until  Armageddon  is 
fought,  Jesus  will  have  to  contend  with  the  great 
antichrist  of  human  selfishness  in  one  form  or 
another.  Jesus  and  Nietzsche  can  never  be  made  to 
harmonize.  But  with  the  church  as  it  should  be, 
the  issue  becomes  no  longer  obscure.  Each  side  is 
judged  on  its  own  merits,  and  there  is  no  confusion. 
As  it  stands,  a  good  deal  of  real  Christianity  is  to 
be  found  in  the  opposition  camps,  while  not  a  little 
of  pure  Nietzschian  selfishness  masquerades  under 
the  banner  of  the  church  of  Christ. 

The  developing  consciousness  of  humanity  is 
hungry  for  that  moral  idealism  which  alone  can  feed 
the  soul.  Jesus  furnishes  this  veritable  "Bread  of 
Life"    when    his    real    teaching    is    brought    to    the 


8  INTRODUCTION 

famishing  human  spirit.  But  to  stifle  or  disguise 
this  teaching  under  any  species  of  religious  mum- 
mery is  simply  to  destroy  it.  Of  superstition, 
credulity,  and  the  mere  trappings  of  religion  the 
world  has  had  enough.  For  the  church  to  adhere 
to  these  things  means  nothing  short  of  destruction. 
Nor  are  these  things  a  part  of  the  real  religion  of 
Christ.  Sad  indeed  is  it  that  the  greatest  figure  in 
the  history  of  the  race  should  so  often  be  wounded 
in  the  house  of  his  nominal  friends. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  real  followers  of  Christ 
should'  cease  their  emphasis  upon  petty  points  of 
division  and  center  their  attention  upon  the  larger 
aspects  of  Christianity.  The  Spirit  of  Formalism, 
which  is  almost  inevitably  the  Spirit  of  Intolerance, 
on  the  inside,  and  the  Spirit  of  Selfishness,  which  is 
the  Spirit  of  the  World,  on  the  outside,  are  to-day 
doing  their  best  to  throttle  the  heart  of  the  gospel. 
The  unfortunate  division  of  forces  on  the  part  of 
the  adherents  of  ethical  Christianity  gives  comfort 
to  the  foe.  May  we  not  hope  that  this  division  is 
destined  soon  to  give  place  to  the  larger  unity  which 
was  undoubtedly  the  ideal  of  our  Master? 

Frederick  D.  Kershner. 


Contents 

PART  I 
Christ  the  Centre  of  World  History 

I.  The    World    Grows    to    Manhood  Through 

Christ  .  .  .  .  .  .  •        '5 

The  threefold  division  of  the  religion  of  Christ  as 
(I)  its  idealistic  basis,  (2)  vital  Christianity,  and 
(3)  formal  Christianity.  The  distinction  between 
the  religion  of  childhood  and  the  religion  of  man- 
hood.    Adolescence  of  the  world  in  Christ. 

II.  The  Reign  of  Ideals  versus  the  Reign  of  Law        23 

The  imitation  of  Christ  the  key-note  of  Christianity. 
Religion  to  a  Christian  not  a  code  of  laws  to  be 
obeyed,  but  certain  great  ideals  to  be  realized. 
The  ultimate  definition  of  a  Christian  as  one  who 
realizes  Christ  in  his  own  life. 

III.  The  Relation  of  Vital  to  Formal  Christian- 

ity        .  .  .  .  .  .  '31 

The  philosophical  distinction  between  form  and  con- 
tent. Vital  Christianity  or  the  realization  of  the 
Christ  life  the  end  and  goal  of  religion.  Formal 
Christianity,  the  Church,  with  its  ritual,  ordinances 
etc.,  the  means  to  the  end  proposed.  Both  essen- 
tial to  a  true  concept  of  religion.  Form  valueless 
without  content,  and  content  useless  without  form. 

PART  II 

Vital  Christianity 

(a)     The  Here  and  Now 
I.  The   First  Great  Ideal  of  Christ — Right- 

eousness        ......       41 

The   goal  of  personal  purity  and  individual  con- 
formity to  right  standards  of  living.     Essential 


10  CONTENTS 

features  of  Christ's  interpretation  of  the  concept. 
(I)  Humility.  (2)  Duty.  (3)  Kindness:  [a) 
the  kindly  heart;  {d)  the  noa-resistmg  life. 
(4)  Industry.  (5)  Truthfulness.  (6)  Social 
problems  affecting  primarily  the  home  :  (a) 
marriage;  (<^)  adultery;  [c)  divorce;  (d) 
fornication.  (7)  Property  relations:  (a)  hon- 
esty ;  (S)  the  problem  of  wealth ;  (c)  the 
proper  use  of  material  resources.  (8)  Good 
citizenship.  (9)  Temperance — threefold  viola- 
tion :  (a)  abuse  of  good  impulses ;  (d)  use  of 
injurious  agencies;  (c)  misuse  of  occasionally 
good  agencies. 

II.  The  Second  Great  Ideal  of  Christ — Service       64 

Fundamental  importance  of  this  ideal  in  Christ's 
teaching.  Threefold  division  of  the  subject : 
(l)  the  ground  of  service ;  (2)  the  dignity  and 
value  of  service  ;  and  (3)  proper  expression  of 
the  ideal  of  service. 

III.  The  Third  Great  Ideal  of  Christ — Freedom       73 

The  last  of  the  great  ideals  of  Christianity.  Dif 
ferent  phases  of  the  subject :  (i)  the  general 
concept  of  freedom;  (2)  moral  freedom;  (3) 
intellectual  freedom  or  freedom  of  thought. 
Proper  interpretations  of  the  Great  Commission. 
Martyrs  to  freedom. 

(b)     The  Future 

IV.  The    Function    of    the     Supernatural    in 

Christ's  Teaching         .  .  .  .81 

Christianity  deals  not  only  vi'ith  the  present  but 
also  with  the  future.  Christ's  attitude  towards 
the  subject.  Distinction  between  ethics  and  re- 
ligion at  this  point.  No  religion  in  the  true 
sense  without  the  supernatural.  The  failure  of 
positivism.  Relation  of  the  natural  to  the 
supernatural. 

V.  The  Nature    and  Criteria  of  Miracles         .        89 

The  nature  of  miracle  —  Bishop  Warren's  defini- 
tion. Miracles  as  signs.  Belief  in  miracles 
dependent  upon  belief  in  God  and  an  idealistic 


CONTENTS  11 

rather  than  a  materialistic  interpretation  of  the 
universe.  Present-day  miracles.  The  criteria 
of  miracles  must  be  thoroughgoing  and  com- 
plete. Presumptive  and  positive  evidence  both 
demanded.  Credulity  versus  skepticism  in  the 
matter. 

VI.  The  Moral  Value  of  Christ's  Contribution 

TO  THE  Belief  in  a  Future  Life      .  .        97 

The  deterrent  value  of  the  belief  in  the  future  life. 
Stimulative  value  of  such  a  belief.  The  creation 
of  immortality.  The  significance  of  the  resur- 
rection. Value  of  the  resurrection  as  an  evi- 
dence of  a  future  life.  Christian  ethics  but  no 
Christian  religion  v^^ithout  the  resurrection. 
Changed  scientific  attitude. 

(c)     Epilogue 

VII.  Modern  Progress  and  Vital  Christianity    .      106 

Is  Christianity  declining?  Answer:  (a)  from 
statistical  point  of  view  ;  {b)  from  point  of  view 
of  the  moral  pulse  of  the  age.  Evidences  of  the 
presence  of  vital  Christianity  :  ( i )  the  move- 
ment for  world-wide  peace ;  (2)  benevolent 
spirit  of  modern  business  men  ;  (3)  higher 
moral  tone  of  politics  and  political  life ;  (4) 
the  banishment  of  cruelty;  (5)  movements 
towards  a  united  Christendom  ;  (6)  increased  re- 
ligious toleration  and  sympathy  with  the  masses. 


PART  III 

Formal  Christianity 
I.        Creed 117 

The  Church's  framework  analyzed  into  the  threefold 
outline  of  (i)  creed,  (2)  ordinance,  and  (3)  polity. 
Definitions.  The  apostolic  creed.  Evidence  sup- 
porting this  creed  in  the  New  Testament,  No 
statement  of  theological  dogma,  but  primarily  an 
affirmation  of  will  regarding  the  Christ  ideal  of 
life.  The  first  great  confession  of  Christendom 
must  be  its  last  confession.  Unifying  power  of 
this  confession. 


12  CONTENTS 

II.  Ordinance 125 

Distinction  from  creed.  The  two  ordinances  of 
Christendom.  Baptism — its  (i)  design,  (2)  sub- 
jects, and  (3)  action.  The  Lord's  Supper — in- 
stitution and  purpose.  The  initiatory  and  per- 
petual ordinances  of  Christ's  religion  as  constitu- 
ting its  formal  constitution.  Unchanging  char- 
acter of  this  constitution.  Theological  interpreta- 
tions of  the  ordinances. 

III.  Polity  .         .         .         .      -  .         .         .136 

The  problem  of  church  government.  The  three 
forms  now  prevalent  in  Christendom.  The  New 
Testament  precedent.  The  ultimate  polity  will 
guarantee  perfect  freedom  to  the  individual  Chris- 
tian and  congregation,  together  with  unified  action 
for  all.  The  unity  of  freedom  versus  the  unity  of 
compulsion.  Liberty  and  Union  the  watchwords 
of  Christianity. 

IV.  The   Spiritual  and   Mystical   Element  in  Re- 

ligion   .  .  .  .  .  .  .141 

The  subject  of  worship.  Various  interpretations  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  The  nature  and  importance  of 
prayer.  The  problem  of  ritual.  The  value  of  the 
aesthetic  element  in  the  religious  life. 

V.  Conversion   .         .         .         .         .         .         -HP 

The  problem  a  simple  one.  How  people  professed 
the  religion  of  Christ  in  the  apostolic  days.  The 
sermon  of  Peter.  First  converts  to  Christianity. 
Later  conversions.  Essentially  volitional  char- 
acter of  the  process. 

VI.  The  Church  Universal  .         .         .         '154 

Early  freedom  of  the  Church.  Freedom  afterwards 
sacrificed  to  unity,  but  regained  as  a  result  of  the 
Reformation.  The  perfect  unity,  which  will  con- 
tain freedom  as  an  element,  still  to  come.  The 
Church  of  Christ,  Universal,  must  embody  both 
perfect  unity  and  perfect  freedom.  The  Christ 
Spirit  grieved  until  this  is  accomplished.  The 
final  message  of  Christ  to  His  followers. 
Appendix .161 


PART  I 
Christ  the  Centre  of  World  History 


THE  WOELD  GEOWS  TO  MANHOOD 
THEOUGH  CHEIST 

THE  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  involved  three 
things  :  first,  a  change  of  basis  from  that 
of  all  preceding  religions ;  second,  the 
furnishing  of  a  new  moral  ideal  for  the  world ;  and 
third,  the  adoption  of  a  new  method  for  the  exten- 
sion of  religious  truth.  A  new  religious  basis,  a 
new  ideal  of  life,  a  new  method  for  extending  the 
truth — these  three  things  make  up  the  religion  of 
Christ.  We  shall  treat  of  the  first  under  the  cap- 
tion of  Christ  the  Centre  of  World  History ;  the 
second  is  The  Story  of  Vital  Christicmity  ;  and  the 
third  that  of  Formal  Christianity  or  The  Church 
as  an  Organization  in  the  World. 

With  regard  to  the  first  of  these  divisions,  it 
may  be  said  that  all  preceding  religions,  not  except- 
ing the  Hebrew,  were  religions  of  external  cere- 
mony, of  sacrifices  and  burnt  offerings,  of  temples 
and  tabernacles,  of  platters  and  lavers,  and  of  tith- 
ings  of  mint,  of  anise  and  of  cummin.  Men  be- 
lieved, in  many  lands,  that  the  way  to  get  rid  of  sin 
and  to  propitiate  the  gods  was  to  burn  their  children 

15 


16    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

in  the  arms  of  Moloch,  or  to  have  them  pass 
through  the  fires  of  Ashtaroth.  Upon  the  blazing 
altars  of  Carthage,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  a 
hundred  smiling  infants,  born  of  the  noblest  fathers 
and  mothers  in  the  land,  were  cast  into  the  flames, 
stretching  out  their  dimpled  hands  and  uttering 
their  innocent  cries  while  the  pitiless  priests 
drowned  their  voices  with  the  beating  of  cymbals 
and  of  drums. 

Now  the  people  who  did  these  things  believed 
that  they  were  serving  God.  The  mother  gave  up 
her  boy  to  his  awful  doom,  believing  that  God  was 
pleased  with  her  action.  The  father  crushed  down 
the  agony  of  his  heart  as  he  thought  of  the  terrible 
fate  of  his  baby  girl,  because  he  believed  that  God 
demanded  the  sacrifice.  We  are  shocked,  as  we 
well  may  be,  when  we  think  of  these  things  to-day ; 
and  yet,  looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  sacri- 
fice alone,  there  was  something  about  the  self-denial 
of  these  heathen  fathers  and  mothers  which  had  in 
it  at  least  a  touch  of  the  heroic,  a  touch  of  the 
sublime. 

But  the  human  sacrifices  of  the  Carthaginians, 
no  less  than  the  milder  offerings  of  the  Greeks,  and 
the  ceremonial  rites  of  the  Hebrews,  were,  after 
all,  only  external  devices  for  solving  the  problem  of 
sin,  and    the  counter-problem  of  growth  in  the 


MANHOOD  THROUGH  CHRIST         17 

moral  life.  The  world  was  still  in  its  childhood, 
and  it  had  to  understand  things  through  symbols, 
or  else  not  understand  them  at  all.  It  had  to  have 
its  building  blocks  and  its  picture  books,  its  alpha- 
bet and  its  horn  book,  before  it  could  be  prepared 
for  the  better  day  to  come.  So  also,  in  the  incipi- 
ent moral  training  of  the  race,  the  method  was  one 
of  physical  compulsion  rather  than  of  genuine 
moral  freedom.  The  stern  commandments  of  Sinai 
thundered  the  moral  law  into  the  ears  of  the  people 
with  the  imperious  "  Thou  shalt  not "  preceding 
every  phrase,  and  the  dread  penalty  of  physical 
death  awaiting  the  lawbreaker.  There  was  a 
superfluity  of  regulations  covering,  as  it  seemed, 
every  possible  moral  transgression,  with  penalties 
aifixed  to  each.  Nothing  was  left  to  the  individual 
judgment.  Everybody  was  looked  after ;  every- 
thing, in  modern  parlance,  was  "  cut  and  dried  "  ; 
and  the  whole  nation  checked  off  and  compelled  to 
be  good,  whether  it  desired  to  be  so  or  not.  It  was 
all  the  pedagogical  method  of  childhood. 

But  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  came  with  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Humanity, 
at  one  stride,  through  the  moral  teaching  of  Christ, 
passes  from  the  period  of  childhood  to  the  full- 
grown  glory  of  moral  manhood  and  womanhood. 
The   building-blocks  and  the  A,  B,  C's  are  put 


18    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

away ;  the  old  ceremonial  rites  are  discarded  ;  the 
formal  laws  of  the  temple  and  the  altar  are  no 
longer  regarded  as  the  ultimate  factors  in  religion. 
Most  of  all,  the  moral  training  of  the  race  passes 
from  the  external  restrictions  of  the  child  to  the 
freedom  of  choice  and  the  building  up  of  a  moral 
ideal,  which  alone  constitute  character  or  morality, 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  term.  Instead  of  the  im- 
perious "  Thou  Shalt "  or  "  Thou  shalt  not,"  uttered 
amid  the  thunders  and  lightnings  of  Sinai,  there  is 
the  gentle,  "  Be  ye  also  perfect  as  your  Father  in 
heaven  is  perfect,"  of  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes. 
The  reign  of  personality  succeeds  the  reign  of  law  ; 
the  rule  of  moral  freedom,  that  of  physical  com- 
pulsion ;  Moses  gives  place  to  Christ ;  and  the 
world  grows  to  manhood  through  the  moral  revolu- 
tion of  the  Man  of  Galilee. 

The  importance  of  this  change  cannot  be  meas- 
ured in  words.  Jesus  Christ  came,  we  are  told,  in 
the  fullness  of  time.  He  came  to  work  the  might- 
iest revolution  the  earth  has  ever  known.  The 
world  has  been  slow  to  appreciate  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  the  change.  Time  and  time  again,  even 
after  the  light  in  all  its  splendor  had  burst  upon  the 
startled  gaze  of  humanity,  man  has  deliberately 
gone  back  to  his  old  idols  of  the  past.  Ecclesiasti- 
cism,  the  worship  of  images,  the  horrors  of  medise- 


MANHOOD  THROUGH  CHRIST         19 

val  priestcraft,  much  even  of  present-day  ceremo- 
nialism— thsse  all  are,  and  have  been,  only  attempts 
to  fasten  the  restrictions  of  childhood  upon  the  full- 
grown  manhood  of  the  human  race.  But  just  as 
the  child  throws  aside  its  building-blocks  and  its 
alphabet,  and  has  no  further  use  for  them,  so  hu- 
manity has  dispensed  with  ecclesiasticism  and  the 
worship  of  external  ceremonies.  Unfortunately, 
too  often  the  true  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  which 
was  responsible,  in  the  first  place,  for  the  transition, 
has  suffered  in  the  reaction.  Priestcraft,  while  not 
entirely  responsible  for  the  excesses  of  a  Yoltaire,  a 
Diderot,  or  a  Rousseau,  had  at  least  much  to  do 
with  them.  A  formal  Christianity,  stifled  by  ec- 
clesiasticism, is  indeed  as  far  from  the  true  spirit 
and  mind  of  the  Master  as  a  so-called  "  moral  skep- 
ticism "  which  contains  much  of  the  kernel  of  His 
teaching,  though  failing  to  give  credit  for  it  where 
it  belongs.  This  I  take  to  be  the  meaning  of  those 
famous  lines  of  one  of  the  greatest  Christian  poets 
of  the  nineteenth  century : 

''  Perplext  in  faith  but  pure  in  deeds, 
At  last  he  beat  his  music  out. 
There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

These  words  are  not  intended  to  be  a  glorification 
of  doubt.    They  are  not  an  impeachment  of  the 


20    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

right  sort  of  creed,  but  they  are  a  warning  served 
upon  the  earthly  guardians  of  the  Church,  to  one 
end.  That  end  is  never  to  sacrifice  the  Christ  ideal 
of  purity  of  life,  in  exchange  for  a  barren  worship 
of  rites  and  ceremonies. 

The  true  Christian,  by  virtue  of  his  birthright  as 
a  Christian,  must  be  first  of  all  a  moral  individual, 
one  possessing  the  power  of  choice,  one  who  moulds 
and  fashions  his  own  spiritual  nature  after  an  ideal 
goal  which  he  places  before  him,  rather  than  one 
who  is  scourged  into  good  behavior, — a  process 
which,  by  virtue  of  the  scourge,  has  no  moral 
quality  about  it.  It  is  sometimes  said  nowadays 
that  there  is  a  species  of  unconscious  prejudice  on 
the  part  of  the  average  man  against  what  may  be 
styled  ''  churchly  things,"  and  the  ecclesiastical 
habit.  Like  a  good  many  other  unconscious  preju- 
dices, it  is  well  founded.  Its  basis  consists  in  the 
fact  that  the  world  has  grown  beyond  the  rule  of 
external  forms,  and  too  often  these  are  substituted 
for  the  moral  content  and  heart  of  the  religious  life. 
Now  the  Church  has  only  herself  to  blame  if  she 
has  allowed  others  to  interpret  her  message  better 
than  she  has  chosen  to  interpret  that  message  her- 
self. That  there  is  and  must  be  a  formal  element 
in  all  religion,  may  well  be  conceded  ;  but  it  should 
always  be  remembered  that  this  formal  element  can 


MANHOOD  THROUGH  CHRIST         21 

never  take  the  place  of  the  true  heart  and  core  of 
Christianity,  which  is  a  voluntary  transformation  of 
life,  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Christ  ideal  upon  the 
soul.  St.  Paul  has  put  the  whole  question  ade- 
quately and  magnificently  in  those  superb  words  of 
the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  "  But  we 
all,"  he  says,  "  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a 
glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the 
same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord." 

Moreover,  the  Christian  life,  as  embodied  in  the 
religion  of  Jesus,  means  not  only  freedom  from  the 
bondage  of  external  ceremonies,  but  it  also  means 
something  more  than  a  mere  tissue  of  beautiful 
dreams  or  aspirations  towards  the  goal.  JSText  to 
the  blight  of  ceremonialism,  which  does  things, 
though  in  an  altogether  useless  and  harmful  sort  of 
way,  comes  the  blight  of  inanity,  of  the  dreamer,  of 
the  man  who  is  always  "  going  to  be  "  but  never 
"  is  " — the  pink-and- white  moonshine  of  modern  so- 
cial faddists  who  would  reform  the  world  at  after- 
noon teas,  and  get  rid  of  Whitechapel  by  simply 
waving  it  lordly  out  of  existence.  Over  against 
this  sentimental  boobyism  come  the  clear-cut  words 
of  the  Master,  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I 
work  " ;  "  The  harvest  truly  is  plenteous,  but  the 
laborers  are  few  :  pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the 


22    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

harvest  that  He  will  send  forth  laborers  into  His 
harvest."  Jesus  Christ  did  not  attempt  to  get  rid 
of  sin  by  passing  resolutions  at  an  afternoon  tea  or 
in  a  richly  decorated  lyceum  parlor.  No  !  a  thou- 
sand times,  No  !  He  went  out  into  the  highways 
and  the  byways  and  preached  and  taught  and  lived 
the  God  life,  and  the  true  Christian  to-day  must  do 
the  same  thing. 

"  Be  what  thou  seemest,  live  thy  creed, 
Hold  up  to  earth  the  torch  divine, 
Be  what  thou  pray  est  to  be  made, 

Let  the  Great  Master's  steps  be  thine. 

**  Fill  up  each  hour  with  what  will  last, 
Buy  up  the  moments  as  they  go. 
The  life  above,  when  this  is  past 
Is  the  ripe  fruit  of  life  below.'' 


II 

THE  EEIQN  OF  IDEALS  VERSUS  THE  EEIGN 
OF  LAW 

IF  we  may  be  permitted  to  speak  of  a  ^vorld- 
consciousness  parallelling  in  a  measure  the 
consciousness  of  the  individual,  then  the 
advent  of  Christianity  marks  the  transition  point 
from  the  non-moral  period  of  childhood  to  the  adult 
morality  of  manhood  or  womanhood.  The  world 
was  a  child,  to  continue  the  figure,  until  Christ 
came.  After  His  advent,  it  progressed  rapidly 
towards  manhood.  What  marks  the  transition 
from  the  non-moral  to  the  moral  period  in  the  in- 
dividual is  the  recognition  of  personal  responsibility. 
The  supreme  lesson  which  Christ  brought  into  the 
world  was  the  value  of  the  individual  soul  and  the 
responsibility  attaching  to  it.  It  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  Nazarene's  teaching  that  He  laid 
down  no  enactments  to  be  obeyed.  His  whole 
doctrine  was  one  of  ideals  rather  than  of  positive 
statutes.  Moses  was  a  great  lawgiver,  but  Christ 
gave  no  laws  at  all.  As  a  formulator  of  ideals, 
however.  His  name  stands  unique  among  the 
teachers  of  the  world.     As  the  painter  sees  the 

23 


24    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

beautiful  picture  before  his  mind's  eye  and  strives 
to  spread  it  upon  canvas,  and  as  the  sculptor  sees 
the  glowing  image  before  his  gaze  and  fashions  the 
snowy  marble  after  his  vision,  so  Christ  holds  up 
before  humanity  the  perfect  likeness  of  the  good 
life,  and  asks  that  we  realize  it,  and  transmute  our 
lives  into  the  likeness  of  His  own.  That  was  a  true 
insight  which  caused  good  old  Thomas  a  Kempis 
to  style  the  greatest  devotional  book  of  the  ages 
"  The  Imitation  of  Christ. "  Christ  never  formulated 
a  code,  never  used  the  words  "  Thou  shalt,"  never 
treated  citizens  of  the  goodly  moral  universe  as 
children,  but  always  as  men.  He  knew  that  even 
He  could  not  compel  men  to  be  good,  that  such 
compulsion  was  indeed  the  very  opposite  of  that 
spirit  of  holiness  which  He  came  to  proclaim. 
Laws  for  children,  but  ideals  for  men  ;  laws  for  the 
political  world,  but  ideals  for  the  moral  and  relig- 
ious world ;  laws  for  the  old  and  outgrown  world 
of  the  past,  but  ideals  for  the  new  and  resplendent 
universe  of  God.  So  it  is  that  Christ,  with  His 
perfect  personality,  His  rich  and  abundant  life.  His 
mighty,  inspiring  example,  constitutes  and  ahvays 
has  constituted  the  essence  of  Christianity.  Amid 
diverse  opinions  and  multitudinous  theories,  based 
upon  that  uniqueness  of  thought  and  feeling  which 
is  the  secret  of  the  individual,  there  has  yet  been  a 


REIGN  OF  IDEALS  VS.  REIGN  OF  LAW    25 

striking  unanimity  of  belief  among  the  good  of  all 
Christian  communions  in  regard  to  the  centre  of 
their  religious  convictions  and  belief.  "  Thou,  O 
Christ,  art  all  I  want,"  has  been  ever  the  cry  of  the 
devout  and  the  holy  of  a  world-wide  Christendom. 
Ever  the  prayer  of  the  Christian  has  been  : 

'*  We  would  see  Jesus — for  the  shadows  lengthen 
Across  this  little  landscape  of  our  life  ; 
We  would  see  Jesus,  our  weak  faith  to  strengthen 
For  the  last  weariness— the  final  strife. 

'*  We  would  see  Jesus— the  great  Rock  Foundation, 
Whereon  our  feet  were  set  with  sovereign  grace  ; 
Not  life,  nor  death,  with  all  their  agitation. 
Can  thence  remove  us,  if  we  see  His  face.'^ 

To  see  Jesus  is  to  gaze  upon  Him  as  an  ideal,  to  see 
in  Him  the  perfect  figure  which  we  are  to  fashion 
out  of  the  rebellious  marble  of  our  own  little  lives. 
This  is  the  religion  of  Christ,  to  realize  Him  in  us, 
to  transmute  our  own  stubborn  wills  into  His 
divine  will,  and  to  be  in  the  end  like  Him.  Who 
then  is  a  Christian  ?  He  who  has  most  of  Christ 
in  him ;  not  he  who  wears  a  particular  theological 
label,  or  he  who  subscribes  to  a  particular  creed,  or 
he  who  wraps  himself  in  a  special  vestment  or  robe, 
but  he  who  wears  Christ  in  his  heart,  who  has  trod 
with  Him  perchance  the  Via  Dolorosa  of  sufl'ering, 
and  who  likewise  wears  with  Him  the  Crown  of 
Light.     He  who  has  learned  to  love  like  Him,  to 


26    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

forgive  like  Him,  to  be  humble  with  Him,  to  give 
all,  as  He  told  the  rich  young  ruler,  and  to  count 
it  as  naught.  Robert  Burns,  in  the  earliest  of  his 
letters  which  has  reached  us,  says  in  his  own  charac- 
teristic way,  "  I  am  more  pleased  with  the  fifteenth, 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  verses  of  the  seventh 
chapter  of  Revelation  than  with  ten  times  as  many 
verses  in  the  whole  Bible,  and  w^ould  not  exchange 
the  noble  enthusiasm  with  w^hich  they  inspire  me 
for  all  that  this  world  has  to  offer." 

But  the  galaxy  of  saints  and  martyrs  pictured  in 
the  noble  passage  to  w^hich  the  poet  refers  is  not 
made  up  of  the  adherents  of  a  particular  creed  or 
party,  but  of  the  redeemed  of  all  ages  and  climes 
and  conditions — those  who  lived  w^th  Christ  on 
earth  and  on  that  account  live  with  Him  in  the 
great  Beyond.  Therefore  to  be  a  Christian,  once 
more,  is  to  realize  the  ideals  of  Christ,  to  voluntarily 
fashion  your  own  life  after  His,  and  to  choose  of 
your  own  -^ill,  day  by  day,  to  be  like  Him. 

Many  people,  like  children  before  they  reach  the 
age  of  responsibility,  are  not  ready  for  a  gospel  of 
ideals.  The  only  religion  they  can  comprehend  is 
the  religion  of  statute  and  legal  enactment,  of  com- 
mandments and  laws.  Mohammedanism  controls 
a  tenth  of  the  world  to-day  for  this  reason.  The 
gospel  of  Mohammed  w^as  not  one  of  ideals,  but  one 


REIGN  OF  IDEALS  VS.  REIGN  OF  LAW    27 

of  law.  Compulsion,  not  volition,  was  his  watch- 
word. It  is  a  fact  recognized  even  now  by  many 
missionaries  that  there  are  some  peoples  to  whom 
this  crude  interpretation  of  religion  appeals  more 
powerfully  than  the  more  enlightened  teachings  of 
Christ.  Nations  which  are  yet  children  demand  a 
gospel  of  this  sort,  but  they  can  grow  to  manhood 
only  through  a  religion  of  ideals,  through  the 
religion  of  Jesus. 

No  man  understood  the  teaching  of  Christ 
better  than  His  greatest  apostle,  Paul  of  Tarsus  ; 
but  Paul  constantly  brings  out  the  antithesis 
between  the  religion  of  bondage,  typified  for 
him  by  the  Jewish  law,  and  the  religion  of 
freedom,  exemplified  for  him  in  Christ.  The 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians  in  its  entirety  is  a  splendid 
expression  of  this  antithesis.  The  law  was  our 
schoolmaster,  is  its  burden,  to  bring  us  to  Christ. 
Always,  in  Paul's  mind,  there  is  a  superb  feeling 
of  gratitude  because  of  his  deliverance  from  the 
bondage  of  statute  and  his  entrance  upon  the 
glorious  freedom  of  the  sons  of  God.  He  is  very 
jealous  of  this  freedom,  and  contends  sharply  for  it. 
At  the  great  and  imminent  risk  of  causing  a  schism 
among  the  newly  planted  churches,  he  strives 
vigorously  for  that  change  from  the  rule  of  laws  to 
the  rule  of  ideals  which  he  well  and  fully  recognizes 


28     CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

a3  the  very  kernel  of  his  Master's  teaching.  His 
constant  effort  is  that  Christ  may  be  formed  in 
him,  and  he  esteems  all  things  dross  in  order  that 
he  may  realize  Christ. 

The  Apostle  John  recognized  no  less  than  Paul 
the  value  and  character  of  Christ's  mission.  No 
finer  contrast  between  the  Old  and  the  New  could 
have  been  drawn  than  that  which  is  afforded  in  the 
first  chapter  of  his  Gospel:  "For  the  law  was 
given  by  Moses,  but  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus 
Christ."  In  those  superb  figures  characterizing 
Jesus,  with  which  the  Gospel  of  John  abounds,  we 
recognize  the  devotion  of  the  artist  for  the  perfect 
ideal  of  beauty  which  draws  the  best  that  is  in  the 
soul  irresistibly  to  itself.  Paul  was  the  philosopher 
of  the  new  religion,  but  John  was  its  artist  and 
poet.  In  the  magnificent  pictures  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, in  the  splendid  poetry  of  the  Gospel,  in  the 
limpid,  mystical  prose  of  the  First  Epistle,  we  read 
the  devotion  of  the  artist  for  the  perfect  vision  of 
beauty  which  it  Avas  vouchsafed  him  to  behold. 
John,  because  he  was  a  poet,  and  thought  in  poetical 
imagery  and  revelled  in  artistic  language,  under- 
stood, with  an  understanding  granted  to  the  poet 
alone,  the  beauty  of  the  new  freedom  which  his 
Master  came  to  proclaim.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
there  are  three  quotations  in  the  Scriptures  which 


REIGN  OF  IDEALS  VS.  REIGN  OF  LAW    29 

interpret  the  new  doctrine  quite  so  fully  as  those 
three  monumental  passages  from  the  Fourth  Gospel : 
"  For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His 
only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life  "  ; 
and  again,  "  God  is  a  spirit :  and  they  that  worship 
Him  must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth  "  ;  and 
still  again,  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free." 

The  religion  of  Christ  means  fundamentally, 
therefore,  a  deliverance  from  the  reign  of  law,  and 
an  entrance  into  the  glorious  kingdom  of  ideals  in 
which  the  central  and  foremost  figure  is  ever  that 
of  the  Christ  Himself.  This  is  the  kingdom  of  the 
free  man,  of  the  citizen  of  God,  of  all  who  share  in 
our  divine  humanity.  In  this  kingdom,  too,  there 
is  a  common  brotherhood.  As  we  realize  Christ, 
we  are  drawn  together,  so  that  there  is  a  funda- 
mental unity  in  the  common  ground  upon  which 
we  stand  and  the  common  goal  which  we  seek. 
There  have  been  those  in  all  religious  communions 
who  believed,  or  affected  to  believe,  that  their  own 
immediate  circle  contained  all  of  the  elect,  all  of 
the  band  mentioned  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  the 
Apocaly]3se,  all,  forsooth,  who  belonged  to  Christ. 
These  men,  however,  never  dared  to  face  their 
belief  squarely  ;  for  if  they  had  so  done,  their  own 


30     CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

consciences  must  have  given  the  lie  to  them.  Who 
are  Christians,  again  ?  My  party,  or  your  party,  or 
parties  ?  Nay,  nay,  my  brother.  They  are  Chris- 
tians  who  best  realize  Christ,  and  no  creed  holds 
assuredly  a  monopoly  of  such.  Doubtless  the  right 
creed  has  indeed  much  to  do  with  the  right  life, 
and  yet  it  has  sometimes  been  true,  in  past  history, 
that  the  good  life  has  been  lived  as  it  were  in 
defiance  of  creed  or  party  affiliations.  Surely  a 
man  possesses  the  religion  of  Christ,  who  can  ap- 
preciate and  offer  up  as  incense  from  the  depth  of 
his  heart,  those  words  of  George  Matheson : 

^'  O  Love,  that  wilt  not  let  me  go, 
I  rest  my  weary  soul  in  thee  ; 
I  give  thee  back  the  life  I  owe, 
That  in  thine  ocean  depths  its  flow 
May  richer,  fuller  be. 

*'  O  Light,  that  followest  all  my  way, 
I  yield  my  flickering  torch  to  thee  ; 
My  heart  restores  its  borrowed  ray. 
That  in  thy  sunshine's  blaze  its  day- 
May  brighter,  fairer  be. 

**0  Joy,  that  seekest  me  through  pain, 
I  cannot  close  my  heart  to  thee  ; 
I  trace  the  sunshine  through  the  rain, 
And  feel  the  promise  is  not  vain 
That  morn  shall  tearless  be. 

^*  O  Cross,  that  liftest  up  my  head, 
I  dare  not  ask  to  fly  from  thee  ; 
I  lay  in  dust  life's  glory  dead, 
And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms  red 
Life  that  shall  endless  be." 


Ill 

THE  EELATION  OF  VITAL  TO  FOEMAL 
CHRISTIANITY 

AMONG  all  philosophers  since  the  days  of 
Aristotle  there  has  been  much  use  and 
recognition  of  the  distinctions  implied  in 
the  words  form  and  content.  Things  are  made  up 
essentially  of  both  these  elements.  The  form  of  a 
thing  is  that  which  organizes  and  gives  shape  to  the 
material  which  enters  into  it.  The  content  is  the 
material  which  fills  up  the  empty  but  none  the  less 
valuable  form.  Form  without  content  is  empty 
and  valueless.  Content  without  form  is  helpless 
and  without  individuality.  Each  is  useless  without 
the  other,  and  both  are  needed  to  make  up  a  thing. 
This  philosophical  distinction  is  of  use  in  under- 
standing clearly  the  religion  of  Christ.  That  which 
constitutes  its  form,  which  gives  it  shape  and  or- 
ganization and  individuality  is  the  Church,  with  its 
ordinances  and  laws.  That  which  the  Church 
fosters,  and  for  which  it  indeed  exists,  is  the  moral 
life.  There  can  be  no  religion  without  the  Church, 
nor  can  there  be  any  true  religion  without  the 
Christian  life.     The  former  is  the  means,  the  latter 

31 


32     CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

the  end.'  The  Church  exists  to  produce  and  foster 
the  Christ  life  among  men.  She  is  always  a  means, 
never  an  end  in  herself.  Her  goal  is  Christ,  and 
through  her  we  see  Him.  She  it  is  who  leads 
us  to  Him,  and  without  her,  we  should  soon  cease 
to  think  or  care  for  Him.  The  end  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ  is  therefore  the  Christ  life,  or,  as 
we  have  chosen  to  style  it,  vital  Christianity. 
The  means  through  which  alone  this  end  may 
be  realized  is  the  Church,  or  as  we  have  elected 
to  call  it,  the  formal  side  of  Christ's  teaching. 
Yital  without  formal  religion  soon  dies ;  formal 
without  vital  is  dead  already.  Both  are  essential, 
and  the  one  cannot  live  long  without  the  other. 

Much  harm  has  resulted  in  the  past  from  the  sub- 
stitution of  formal  for  vital  religion,  or  from  an  at- 
tempt to  make  an  end  out  of  the  means.  Instead 
of  the  Christ  life,  men  thought  the  essential  thing 
was  the  church  form  ;  instead  of  love  or  purity, 
they  put  external  worship ;  and  they  went  to 
church    with    their    hands   bathed  in   blood  and 

^  Nothing  in  this  chapter,  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  say,  should 
be  held  to  mean  the  identification  of  "  form  "  with  "  means,"  or 
"content  "  with  '*  end, "  as  philosophical  terras.  From  one  point 
of  view,  formal  Christianity  is  a  means  and  vital  Christianity 
an  end.  From  another,  the  one  represents  the  form,  and  the 
other  the  content  of  the  Christian  religion.  We  believe  both 
points  of  view  to  be  correct,  but  the  terms  themselves  should  not 
be  confused. 


VITAL  AND  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY    33 

thought  they  were  clean.  No  student  of  Italian 
history  during  the  Middle  Ages  can  fail  to  ajDpre- 
ciate  the  significance  of  this  distinction.  It  was 
said  of  the  Medici  family,  many  of  them  at  least, 
that  they  were  very  religious,  but  very  immoral  as 
well.  No  one  can  enter  that  Tuscan  castle  where  a 
scion  of  noble  birth  strangled  his  wife  to  death,  de- 
spite her  pleadings,  performing  most  assiduously 
his  devotions,  both  before  and  after  the  deed,  with- 
out being  struck  by  the  contrast  between  the  relig- 
ious form  and  the  religious  life.  Murder,  adultery, 
theft  and  all  manner  of  uncleanness  have  existed 
side  by  side  with  the  altar,  and  even  beneath  the 
priestly  stole.  Not  all  of  the  people  who  did  these 
things  were  hypocrites.  One  can  never  enter  into 
the  spirit  of  Italian  history  or  life  if  he  thinks  so. 
There  was  a  misapprehension  in  many  minds  re- 
garding the  true  place  and  function  of  the  Church, 
and  hence  arose  much  of  the  evil  that  makes  us 
shudder  as  we  read  of  it.  People  had  mistaken  the 
means  for  the  end.  Instead  of  recognizing  the 
Church  as  the  means  for  producing  the  Christ  life, 
they  had  magnified  her  importance  until  she  be- 
came an  end  in  herself,  and  to  serve  her  constituted 
therefore  the  end  of  life.  This  error  has  also  been 
largely  responsible  for  the  persecutions  which  at 
various  times  have  stained  the  history  of  Christen- 


34    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

dom.  Conscientious  men  put  those  who  did  not 
believe  as  they  did  to  death  with  cruel  tortures,  be- 
cause the  Church,  with  its  forms  and  requirements, 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  Christ  Hfe  in  their  eyes. 
Nor  were  these  things  confined  to  mediaeval  times, 
or  the  history  of  Italy.  Other  nations  and  climes 
were  equally  guilty,  and  no  form  of  Christianity  is 
entirely  free  from  blame.  As  long  as  people  be- 
lieved that  a  certain  form  was  the  vital  thing  in 
making  preparation  for  heaven,  or  that  a  particular 
intellectual  belief  was  essential  in  order  to  save  an 
individual  from  the  flames  of  hell,  in  all  kindness 
such  people  were  likely  to  torture  others  in  order 
to  make  them  accept  the  form,  and  to  coerce  their 
intellects  into  swallowing  the  belief.  Whenever 
men  realized  that  the  Christ  life,  the  life  of  purity, 
of  love  and  of  service,  was  the  goal  of  Christianity, 
all  persecution  ceased.  The  most  pathetic  thing  in 
all  the  history  of  the  ages  is  the  story  of  the  misun- 
derstood Christ.  More  crimes  have  been  com- 
mitted in  His  name  even  than  in  the  name  of  liberty. 
Well  might  Browning  say  in  "  Era  Lippo  Lippi "  : 

"  Because  of  Christ 
Whose  sad  face  on  the  cross  sees  only  this 
After  the  passion  of  a  thousand  years." 

In  the  Christian  economy,  vital  Christianity  pre- 
ceded formal  in  point  of  chronology.     Jesus  Christ 


VITAL  AND  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY    36 

preached  and  taught  and  lived  the  divine  life  be- 
fore His  Church  was  founded,  and  only  after  He 
had  formulated  the  Christ  ideal  was  the  framework 
set  up  which  was  to  preserve  it  throughout  the 
ages.  The  Christ  life  preceded  the  Christ  Church  ; 
the  end  was  considered  before  the  means.  Very 
properly,  too,  the  Gospels  are  given  a  place  in  our 
New  Testament  before  the  Acts.  The  Christ  ideal 
must  come  first  in  every  study  of  the  religion  of 
Christ,  just  as  we  must  fix  our  eyes  on  the  goal  be- 
fore we  try  to  discover  the  means  by  wliich  we  may 
hope  to  reach  it.  To  consider  the  means  without 
thinking  first  of  the  end  is  an  absurdity ;  for 
while  there  may  be  an  end  without  the  means,  there 
can  be  no  means  without  an  end. 

Because,  however,  the  end  comes  first  in  time,- 
and  in  a  certain  sense  in  importance,  this  is  no  rea- 
son why  due  credit  and  value  should  not  attach  to 
the  means.  The  Beautiful  City  without  a  road  to 
reach  it  would  remain  an  illusion,  and  only  the 
baseless  fabric  of  a  dream.  The  Christ  ideal  with- 
out the  Church  to  cherish  it  and  keep  it  alive  in  the 
hearts  of  men  would  soon  lose  all  practical  signifi- 
cance. Were  the  Church  to  disappear,  the  Christ 
life  would  likewise  disappear  in  a  short  time. 
Hence  the  imperative  necessity  for  the  Church, 
with  its  ordinances  and  forms,  all  of  them  symbol- 


36     CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

izing  and  interpreting  Christ  for  the  human  heart. 
The  sacraments  of  the  Church  speak  of  the  life  and 
death  of  Him  whom  tliey  commemorate  ;  the  pulpit 
is  an  open  forum  where  the  Christ  life  and  the 
Chi'ist  ideals  are  constantly  held  up  before  the  gaze 
of  men.  Abolish  the  sacraments,  do  awaj  with  the 
churches,  silence  the  voice  of  the  minister,  and  soon 
people  would  forget  the  Christ  life,  and  sink  be- 
neath the  waves  of  an  unbelieving  materialism. 

Herein,  therefore,  we  recognize  the  function  of 
the  Church,  as  well  as  the  obligation  of  every  indi- 
vidual to  ally  himself  with  it.  There  can  be  no 
salvation  save  as  Christ  is  realized  in  our  lives,  but 
without  the  Church  the  world  would  soon  forget 
the  realization,  and  we  on  this  account  owe  it  to 
our  own  selves  and  to  the  world  to  support  and 
adhere  to  the  Church.  No  salvation  without  the 
Christ  life,  no  Christ  life  without  the  Chm'ch, 
therefore  no  salvation  without  the  Church — thus  the 
argument  runs,  and  its  logic  is  indisputable.  Not 
only  is  there  an  obligation  upon  each  one  of  us  to 
uphold  the  Church  because  of  its  value  to  the  world 
at  large,  but  every  individual,  no  matter  how 
pious  or  moral  by  nature,  needs  the  constant  stim- 
ulus of  worship  and  the  religious  life,  in  order 
to  keep  his  vision  of  the  Good  unclouded  and 
whole.     The  man  who  presumably  might  be  good 


VITAL  AND  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY    37 

enough  to  get  along  without  the  Church  is  always 
the  one  who  never  wants  to  do  without  it ;  whereas 
the  man  who  thinks  he  does  not  need  it  usually 
needs  it  most.  The  cleanest  men  of  to-day, 
whether  in  or  out  of  the  Church,  are  unconscious 
products  of  its  influence.  The  best  modern  skeptics 
owe  their  power  to  the  unconscious  inheritance  and 
assimilation  of  the  ideals  preserved  by  the  Church. 
Often  the  Church  has  forgotten  her  mission,  often 
she  has  poorly  performed  it,  often  she  has  misinter- 
preted and  even  slandered  it,  yet  she  remains  its 
sole  appointed  guardian,  and  without  her  it  would 
wither  and  die.  Therefore  the  religion  of  Christ 
means  not  only  the  Christ  ideal,  the  content,  as  it 
were,  of  Christianity,  but  likewise  the  Church, 
which  constitutes  its  form.  As  well  talk  of  a  thing 
without  any  form  as  a  Christian  without  a  Church. 
A  man  who  believes  in  vital  Christianity  can  ad- 
vance no  good  argument  for  remaining  outside  of 
the  Church,  which  will  not  apply  with  triple  force 
to  his  becoming  a  member  of  it. 

"  But  the  Church,"  some  one  says,  "  pray  tell  us 
what  is  the  Church  ?  Many  claim  the  definite  ar- 
ticle, but  which  Church  can  make  good  her  claim  ? 
Or  are  we  to  infer  that  any  and  every  Church  is 
The  Church,  or  that  all  churches  are  equally  the 
bearers  of  vital  Christianity  ?  "     Obviously,  many 


38    CHRIST  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY 

roads  may  lead  to  the  same  point;  some,  however, 
are  more  difficult,  some  more  uncertain,  some  more 
circuitous  than  others.  Christ  assuredly  founded  a 
Church,  specifying  its  requirements,  and  explaining 
its  organic  structure.  The  unprejudiced  judgment 
and  conscience  of  each  individual  must  decide  in 
every  case  how  this  ideal  Church  is  best  realized 
for  him,  in  the  actual  world.  I  have  no  right  to 
judge  in  this  matter  for  you,  nor  have  you  any 
right  to  judge  for  me.  In  some  cases,  doubtless, 
churches  which  may  seem  to  us  formally  correct 
are  apparently  the  bearers  of  less  vital  Christianity 
than  others  less  correct  in  form.  This,  however,  is 
no  argument  against  correctness  of  form.  In  the 
long  run,  the  church  which  is  ideal  in  form  will  be 
ideal  in  content,  just  as  the  shortest  and  safest  road 
to  the  goal  will  in  the  long  run  prove  to  be  the  best. 
The  religion  of  Christ  presupposes  an  ideal  content, 
clothed  likewise  in  an  ideal  form.  Neither  can  be 
substituted  for  the  other,  and  both  are  essential  to 
a  genuine  Christianity. 


PART  II 
Vital  Christianity 


(a)     The  Here  and  Now 


THE  FIEST  GREAT  IDEAL  OF  CHEIST — 
EIGHTEOUSNESS 

THE  teaching  of  Christ  being  preeminently 
a  doctrine  of  ideals,  a  knowledge  of  these 
ideals  constitutes  the  very  heart  and  core 
of  Christianity.  Much  has  of  course  been  written 
in  regard  to  this  all-important  subject.  At  the 
very  outset,  it  may  be  said  that  Jesus  Christ  af- 
firmed the  moral  teaching  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments and  the  Mosaic  doctrine,  as  regards  truthful- 
ness, purity,  and  cleanness  of  life.  The  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  states  distinctly  that  He  came  "  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfill."  When  the  rich  young 
ruler  came  following  after  Him  desiring  to  be  His 
disciple,  the  young  man  was  told,  first  of  all,  to 
obey  the  commandments.  Christ's  ideal  of  right- 
eousness, as  expressed  in  the  Gospels,  is  therefore 
very  comprehensive,  embracing  as  it  does  the  full 
substance  and  content  of  the  Mosaic  idea,  of  morals. 
Not  only,  however,  does  it  include  the  Mosaic  ideal, 
but  it  adds  certain  features  to  which  Moses  made 

little  if  any  reference. 

41 


42  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  of  these  features 
is  the  teaching  concerning  meekness,  or  humility. 
This  virtue,  so  foreign  to  preceding  systems  of 
ethics,  was  announced  as  the  very  corner-stone 
of  the  Christ  ideal  of  righteousness.  The  radical 
divergence  of  Christ's  teaching  from  previous 
standards  comes  out  very  clearly  here.  Not 
only  is  His  doctrine  at  this  point  a  reversal  of 
older  theories  of  conduct,  but  biologically  it  seems 
a  contradiction  of  the  very  lav7  of  human  develop- 
ment. The  survival  of  the  fittest  means,  if  it 
means  anything,  not  humility  but  self-assertiveness. 
The  meek  lion,  or  the  humble  tiger,  would  not  long 
survive  as  separate  species.  And  yet,  strange  as 
the  contradiction  seemed,  and  seems,  its  truthful- 
ness becomes  more  apparent  to  every  age.  The 
meek  and  lowly  Nazarene  Himself  will  outlast  an 
Alexander,  a  Caesar  or  a  Napoleon,  the  supreme  ex- 
amples of  egoism.  The  ideal  of  humility  is  recog- 
nized more  and  more  as  the  only  true  basis  upon 
which  to  rear  the  life  of  the  scholar,  the  gentleman 
or  the  worker.  Humility  is  the  key  to  knowledge, 
the  soul  of  any  true  courtesy,  and  the  sine  qua  non 
of  all  efficient  labor.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  docil- 
ity, and  without  docility  there  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  either  education  or  scholarship.  The  atti- 
tude of  the  little  child  is  always  the  attitude  of  the 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       43 

greatest  scientist,  of  the  most  perfect  gentleman, 
and  of  the  man  who  learns  to  wield  and  dii*ect  the 
world's  work. 

This  lesson,  the  first  in  the  alphabet  of  Christ, 
has  been  the  hardest  for  the  world  to  learn.  The 
Hebrew  despised  his  neighbor  and  had  a  tremen- 
dous bump  of  religious  conceit.  What  the  Gentile 
was  to  the  Jew,  the  Barbarian  was  to  the  Greek. 
Even  the  most  cultured  Hellenists,  such  as  Aris- 
totle and  Zeno,  maintained  a  pride  of  intellect 
quite  foreign  to  the  teaching  of  the  Nazarene. 
Many  of  the  tenets  of  Christ  regarding  practical 
life  are  duplicated  in  Stoicism  and  other  forms  of 
Greek  and  Roman  ethics,  but  humility  is  not  one  of 
them.  The  good  man,  before  Christ,  knew  his 
goodness  and  was  proud  of  it.  Humility  he  would 
have  regarded  as  a  weakness,  and  weakness  was  to 
him  the  worst  sin  of  all. 

But  if  Christ  defined  the  right  preparation  for 
living  to  be  the  attitude  of  humility,  no  less  did  He 
assert  that  the  proper  guide  for  life  itself  w^as  the 
lode-star  of  duty.  No  man  ever  ordered  his  career 
more  absolutely  in  harmony  with  what  h^  con- 
ceived to  be  his  mission  than  the  One  Great  Man 
of  all.  His  constant  conception  of  life  was  that  He 
had  a  duty  to  fulfill,  a  mission  to  accomplish,  His 


U  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

Father's  business  to  be  about ;  and  even  though 
that  mission  brought  Gethsemane  and  Calvary  in 
its  train,  it  had  none  the  less  to  be  accomplished. 
Ail  the  really  great  men  of  the  world  since  His 
time  have  had  the  same  idea.  The  Apostle  Paul 
said  when  he  bade  farewell  to  the  elders  of  Ephesus, 
"  Neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself  so  that 
I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy " ;  and  when 
later  he  wrote  his  farewell  message  to  Tunothy,  he 
said,  "  I  have  finished  my  course."  Luther  thought 
of  life  as  a  place  for  the  working  out  of  purpose, 
and  conceived  of  himself  as  one  who  had  a  mission 
to  fulfill.  Calvin  pushed  the  idea  perhaps  to  an  ex- 
treme. Even  irreligious  men  have  sometimes  held 
to  similar  views.  Napoleon  believed  in  his  star, 
Socrates  in  his  Daemon.  Christ's  concept  of  duty, 
however,  was  more  rounded  and  perfect  than  that 
of  the  ordinary  point  of  view.  He  identified  the 
voice  of  duty  with  the  voice  of  God,  and  He  kept 
constantly  merging  the  human  soul  in  the  divine. 
It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  perhaps  most  clearly 
understand  His  divinity.  The  man  who  performs 
his  duty  best  approaches  closest  to  God's  will  and 
purpose  for  him,  and  therefore  approaches  closest 
to  God.  No  Christian  can  neglect  his  duty  and 
remain  a  Christian.  The  underlying  motive  for 
the  whole  life  of  Christ  was  always  this  devotion 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       45 

to  an  ideal  standard  of  conduct.  'No  man  ever 
lived  out  as  He  did  those  superb  lines  of  "Words- 
worth : 

''To  humbler  functions,  Awful  Power  ! 
I  call  thee  :  I  myself  commend 
Unto  thy  guidance  from  this  hour  ; 
Oh,  let  my  weakness  have  an  end  ! 
Give  unto  me,  made  lowly  wise, 
The  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  ; 
The  confidence  of  reason  give  ; 
Aud  in  the  light  of  truth  thy  Bond- 
man let  me  live  ! " 


Following  duty  as  an  essential  in  the  great  ideal 
of  righteousness,  Christ  enunciated  the  principle  of 
kindness.  This  principle,  as  He  taught  it,  involved 
two  sides,  a  negative  and  a  positive,  an  indi- 
vidual and  a  social.  The  negative  feature  alone 
concerns  us  here,  as  the  positive  will  be  treated  un- 
der the  ideal  of  service.  On  this  side,  two  char- 
acteristics may  be  distinguished :  first,  the  kindly 
heart ;  and  second,  the  non-resisting  life.  Back  of 
all  these  considerations  is,  of  course,  the  greatest 
motive  power  in  the  world — love.  Love  negatively 
expressed  gives  us  the  kind  heart ;  positively  ex- 
pressed, it  yields  the  life  of  service.  No  feature  of 
Christ's  doctrine  is  more  fundamental  than  this. 
Above  all  other  things,  the  Supreme  Teacher  was 
kind.     He  who  was  subjected  to  the  awful  torture 


46  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

of  the  cross  would  not  Himself  harm  the  lowliest 
of  God's  creatures.  He  dried  many  tears,  but  by 
His  own  actions  He  caused  none  to  flow.  The 
prophet  had  said  of  Him,  "  A  bruised  reed  shall  He 
not  break,  and  smoking  flax  shall  He  not  quench  "  ; 
and  as  the  most  striking  symbol  by  which  to  pic- 
ture Hmi,  he  selected  the  animal  which  is  known 
as  the  gentlest  of  all  the  creations  of  God.  The 
spmt  of  unkindness,  of  discourtesy,  of  harshness 
and  bitterness,  to  say  nothing  of  cruelty  or  slaugh- 
ter, is  totally  foreign  to  Him.  The  strangest  of 
aU  the  perversions  of  Christianity  was  that  which 
enabled  men  to  torture  and  maim  their  fellow  crea- 
tures in  the  name  of  the  Lamb  of  God  !  Among 
the  sins  eliminated  by  this  principle  are  hatred, 
murder,  cruelty,  slander,  slavery,  ill  temper  and 
revenge.  War,  with  its  attendant  demons,  will 
certainly  disappear  before  the  law  of  kindness 
instituted  by  the  gentle  command  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  No  principle  of  the  Nazarene  means  quite 
so  much  for  humanity  ;  and  for  the  world  to  catch 
Christ's  vision  of  this  one  ideal  would  in  a  single 
day  usher  in  the  splendor  of  the  Millennium  Dawn. 
The  second  division  of  the  law  of  kindness  deals 
with  the  subject  of  the  non-resisting  life.  Much 
has  been  said  in  recent  years  regarding  the  doctrine 
of  non-resistance,  chiefly  through  the  writings  of 


FIKST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       47 

Tolstoi,  the  great  Russian  reformer  and  writer. 
The  doctrine  itself  is  not  new.  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi  believed  in  it,  as  did  George  Fox,  and  hosts 
of  others.  Its  basis  is  contained  in  the  passages 
from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  found  especially  in 
Matthew  v.  38-48.  The  seemingly  impractical 
character  of  these  utterances  has  caused  a  large 
majority  of  people  to  tacitly  disregard  them,  with- 
out at  the  same  time  denying  their  validity  as 
Scripture.  Of  late  years  a  few  writers  and  teach- 
ers, such,  for  instance,  as  Professor  Foster,  have 
denied  the  theoretical  value  of  that  which  they 
could  not  approve  in  practice.  We  have  thus  a 
threefold  attitude  towards  the  doctrine  of  non-re- 
sistance. First,  that  of  Tolstoi,  who  accepts  liter- 
ally, in  both  theory  and  practice,  the  teaching; 
second,  that  of  the  bulli  of  non-thinking  Christians, 
who  accept  it  in  theory  but  disregard  it  in  practice ; 
and  thu-d,  that  of  men  like  Foster,  who  disregard 
it  both  in  theory  and  practice.  What  is  the  solu- 
tion which  the  follower  of  Christ  should  reach  and 
adopt  ?  Obviously  the  great  difficulty  lies  in  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  nature  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  It  is  not  a  code  of  laws,  but  a  collection 
of  ideals.  Ideals  are  not  easily  realized,  and  must 
always  lead  the  way  a  long  distance  before  actual 
realization.     The  key  to  the  problem  is  found  in 


48  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

verse  forty-eight  of  Matthew  five :  "  Ye  therefore 
shall  be  perfect  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  per- 
fect." The  doctrine  of  non-resistance  is  ideal,  and 
should  always  be  kept  before  the  mind  as  the  goal 
of  Christianity.  Whether  it  is  entirely  practical  at 
the  present  time,  one  may  well  doubt.  Still,  in  so 
far  as  these  ideals  are  at  all  practicable,  they 
should  be  realized,  and  constant  eifort  should  be 
made  to  influence  the  world  in  such  a  way  that 
each  generation  will  see  them  realized  to  a  greater 
and  stiU  greater  degree. 

Another  fundamental  feature  of  the  Christ  ideal 
of  righteousness  was  the  virtue  of  industry.  In  all 
the  teaching  of  the  Great  Master,  there  is  not  a 
good  word  said  for  a  lazy  man.  His  life  was  in  it- 
self the  incarnation  of  industry.  Up  until  thirty 
years  of  age  He  worked  with  His  own  hands  as  a 
carpenter.  His  crowded  three  years'  ministry  was 
one  of  marked  activity.  'Not  only  did  Christ  work 
Himself,  but  His  sympathies  were  always  with  the 
workers.  His  sharpest  criticisms  were  hurled  upon 
those  who  attempted  to  make  money  by  extortion 
or  at  the  expense  of  the  poor.  Jesus  was  not  an 
aristocrat ;  He  was  a  proletariat.  Of  late  years, 
efforts  have  been  made  in  certain  quarters  to  line  up 
the  working  men  against   the  Church.     That  the 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       49 

Church  has  always  been  prone  to  forget  the  mission 
of  her  Founder  and  crystallize  into  a  more  or  less 
aristocratic  club,  has  been  unfortunately  too  true. 
How  old  the  tendency  is  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  alluded  to  in  one  of  the  oldest  of 
all  the  New  Testament  Scriptures — the  Epistle  of 
James.  The  severe  condemnation  which  it  there 
receives  has  not  served  to  crush  out  the  evil.  Yery 
often,  indeed,  the  Church  has  put  herself  out  of 
harmony  with  labor,  organized  or  unorganized,  but 
fortunately  this  is  far  less  true  to-day  than  it  has 
been  in  the  past.  One  of  the  larger  Protestant 
denominations  now  employs  a  secretary  of  labor, 
who  recently  converted  an  old  church  in  down- 
town New  York  into  a  labor  temple.  Settlement 
colonies,  and  the  work  of  women  like  Jane  Addams 
or  men  like  Stelzle  and  Steiner,  are  calculated  to 
usher  in  a  new  order  of  things.  It  should  be  made 
clear  to  all  men  who  work  that  Christ  is  their 
friend  and  brother — that  above  all  things  He  was 
industrious  Himself,  and  that  the  parasite  and  the 
drone  found  no  place  in  His  vocabulary.  St.  Paul 
was  about  the  most  untiring  worker  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  He  had  small  patience  with  the  lazy 
man,  and  pronounced  somewhat  oracularly  the 
dictum,  "  If  any  man  will  not  work,  neither  shall 
he  eat."    The  idle  monk  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 


60  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

the  lazy  parson  of  to-day  are  far  from  the  ideals  in- 
culcated by  their  Master. 

One  of  the  characteristic  sayings  of  Christ  is  the 
well-known  quotation :  "  Every  one  that  is  of  the 
truth  heareth  My  voice."  Truthfulness  was  indeed 
the  very  centre,  and  the  heart  and  core  of  His 
ideal  of  life.  ISTo  word  was  oftener  upon  His  lips 
than  truth,  and  yet  few  terms  are  harder  to  define. 
The  world  has  much  to  charge  against  Pilate  that 
he  "  did  not  stay  for  an  answer,"  as  Bacon  says, 
after  he  had  propounded  his  momentous  question. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  Christianity,  here  as 
elsewhere,  does  not  concern  itself  with  theoretical 
problems,  but  with  practical  life.  Whatever  truth 
may  be,  we  all  know  what  it  means  to  lie.  Of 
the  three  ordinary  forms  of  lying — exaggeration, 
equivocation  and  hypocrisy — the  last  named  re- 
ceived the  most  severe  condemnation  of  the  Master. 
"  Woe  unto  you  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites ! " 
preceded  the  most  scathing  denunciation  which 
ever  fell  from  His  lips.  Throughout  Holy  Writ 
there  is  shown  this  same  feeling  towards  deception. 
The  adversary  himself  is  styled  the  Father  of  Lies, 
and  the  part  of  all  liars  is  said  to  be  in  the  lake  of 
fire.  Perhaps  this  worst  of  all  vices  is  likewise 
most  common.      Sometimes  the  adversary   hides 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       51 

himself  so  speciously  behind  the  garb  of  truth  that 
it  is  hard  to  note  his  presence.  The  oft  debated 
question,  Is  a  lie  ever  justifiable?  illustrates  this 
fact.  The  man  who  studies  up  excuses  for  the  justi- 
fication of  falsehood  had  better  be  engaged  in 
other  business.  No  wrong  is  ever  justifiable  in  the 
abstract  sense  ;  though,  in  a  concrete  case,  between 
two  evils  the  rational  and  moral  rule  is  to  choose 
the  lesser.  Nothing  is  more  needed  to-day  than  a 
revival  of  truthfulness — not  only  that  love  of 
abstract  truth  which  is  indispensable  in  the  scien- 
tist, but  also  that  practical  devotion  to  truth  in  the 
every-day  affaks  of  life,  which  makes  the  good 
citizen.  Yery  wisely  indeed  did  one  of  earth's 
greatest  thinkers  s^y,  "  No  pleasure  is  comparable 
to  the  standing  on  the  vantage  ground  of  truth." 

Following  industry  and  truthfulness  in  the  ideal 
of  righteousness,  the  Great  Teacher  touched  upon 
problems  dealing  wath  those  monumental  sources  of 
legal  and  moral  confusion,  the  relations  of  the 
sexes,  and  the  questions  of  property  ownership  and 
relations.  Human  life  as  we  see  it,  on  the  material 
side,  is  concerned  wdth  only  two  things,  nutrition 
and  reproduction  ;  or  in  other  words,  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  individual  and  the  preservation  of  the 
race.     Progress  upward  in  the  scale  of  existence 


52  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

has  always  meant  greater  interest  in  and  care  for 
the  individual ;  but  it  has  also,  by  virtue  of  that 
fact,  advanced  in  no  less  degree  the  welfare  of  the 
race.  The  functions  of  reproduction  give  rise  to 
all  problems  involving  the  home, — marriage,  di- 
vorce, fatherhood,  motherhood,  the  relations  of  the 
child  to  parent,  and  the  like.  In  regard  to  mar- 
riage, Christ's  teaching  seems  perfectly  clear.  He 
began  His  ministry  by  attending  a  marriage  feast ; 
He  blessed  little  children  and  called  them  unto 
Him ;  He  asserted  constantly  the  binding  character 
of  the  marriage  vow.  His  followers  reasserted  and 
practiced  the  teachings  of  their  Master.  Paul, 
while  probably  unmarried  himself,  asserts  in  the 
main  the  beneficence  of  the  institution,  and  nowhere 
condemns  it.  John  draws  his  most  striking  picture 
of  the  heavenly  kingdom  from  the  marriage  rela- 
tion,— "the  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from 
God  out  of  heaven  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for 
her  husband  "  ;  while  the  culmination  of  his  pro- 
phetic vision  is  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb. 
Paul  uses  the  same  figure  in  speaking  of  the  Corin- 
thian Church  and  its  relation  to  Christ.  In  his 
first  letter  to  the  Church  at  Corinth  he  goes  so  far 
as  to  assert  his  privilege  to  marry,  as  the  other 
apostles  had  done,  designating  Cephas  in  particular. 
The  incontestability  of  the  marriage  of  the  leader 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       53 

of  the  twelve  is  of  course  clear.  After  the  apostolic 
days,  attempts  were  made  to  base  a  celibate  life 
upon  the  teachings  of  Christ.  Considerations  of 
prudence  led  one  of  the  great  churches  of  Christen- 
dom to  this  position  regarding  the  priesthood, 
though  it  at  the  same  time  exalted  marriage  among 
the  laity,  elevating  the  marriage  rite  to  the  dignity 
of  a  sacrament.  Skeptical  authors,  as,  for  example, 
Schopenhauer,  have  made  much  of  the  celibacy  of 
Christ,  as  has  also  Tolstoi,  among  nineteenth  cen- 
tury writers.  A  fair-minded  survey  of  the  Naza- 
rene's  teaching,  however,  will  show  unhesitating 
approval  rather  than  any  sort  of  discounting  of  the 
institution  of  marriage. 

The  position  taken  by  Christ  in  regard  to  the 
binding  force  and  solemnity  of  the  marriage  vow  is 
likewise  very  clear.  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  place  adultery  back  of 
the  act  in  the  unclean  gloatings  of  the  mind.  The 
Mosaic  legislation  regarding  any  violation  of  the 
marriage  vow  was  exceedingly  severe.  Adultery 
received  the  same  punishment  as  murder,  and  the 
crime  was  never  condoned,  even  in  the  case  of  a 
national  hero  like  David.  Many  of  the  proverbs 
are  directed  against  this  sin,  and  the  prophets  al- 
ways used  it  as  a  type  of  the  worst  national  apos- 
tasy.    In  modern  times,   the  sin  of  adultery  has 


64  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

been  much  condoned  in  civil  legislation,  though 
never  in  the  teaching  of  the  Church.  As  a  crune 
against  the  family,  it  ranks,  from  the  Clnistian 
point  of  view,  in  the  same  category  with  murder 
against  the  individual,  and  treason  against  the  state. 
JSTo  excuse,  however  plausible,  can  justify  it. 

The  problem  of  divorce  has  caused  much  more 
debate  than  the  problem  of  adultery.  Easy  di- 
vorce, it  is  recognized,  strikes  at  the  very  heart  of 
the  home ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  difficult  di- 
vorce seems  to  encourage  the  even  greater  evil  of 
adultery,  or  at  least  an  unhappy  home  life.  Christ's 
famous  pronouncement  upon  the  inviolabilit}"  of 
the  marriage  relation  must  be  understood,  like  the 
other  passages  in  the  sermon,  as  an  ideal  to  be  real- 
ized as  soon  as  possible,  but  perhaps  as  difficult  of 
immediate  realization  as  the  famous  doctrine  of 
non-resistance.  Ideally  speaking,  marriage  admits 
of  no  dissolution  ;  practically  speaking,  such  a  doc- 
trine might  work  in  the  body  politic  more  harm 
than  good.  What  God  hath  joined  together  man 
cannot  put  asunder,  but  not  every  petty  squire  or 
village  parson  T\aelds  the  sceptre  of  the  Almighty. 
The  true  solution  of  the  problem  lies  in  educating 
people  to  the  dignity  and  sanctity  of  the  marriage 
relation,  throwing  proper  safeguards  around  it,  and 
never  making  it  a  jest  or  a  matter  of  careless  indif- 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       65 

ference.     Proper  care  in  regard  to  marriage  will 
soon  solve  the  whole  problem  of  divorce. 

Christ's  teachings  in  regard  to  the  home  life 
involved  the  following  considerations:  (1)  He 
approved  the  home  as  an  institution;  (2)  He 
inculcated  the  primary  ethical  principle  of  justice 
as  coming  first  in  the  ideal  home;  (3)  After 
justice,  and  as  including  it,  He  insisted  upon  the 
higher  law  of  love ;  and  (4)  He  did  not  believe  in 
that  narrow  conception  of  the  family  which  negates 
the  altruistic  spirit.  Charity  with  Him  began  at 
home,  but  it  did  not  end  there.  Those  who  did  His 
will  were  in  the  larger  and  truer  sense  His  nearest 
relatives.  The  spiritual  relationship,  while  above 
the  natural,  did  not,  however,  negate  the  latter.  In 
heaven  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  mar- 
riage ;  but  on  earth,  marriage  is  divine,  and  bears 
the  seal  of  the  approval  of  God.  The  happiest 
home  is  none  the  less  the  one  which  is  least  self- 
centred,  and  which  extends  farthest  beyond  its  own 
narrow  boundaries. 

One  of  the  chief  sins  condemned  by  Christ,  as 
well  as  by  the  later  church  authorities,  was  the 
vice  of  fornication.  While  regarded  more  leniently 
than  adultery  by  the  Jews,  it  was  severely  de- 
nounced. It  is  one  of  those  evils  which  only 
thorough  education  and  training  can  remove.     Per- 


66  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

haps  no  sin  is  more  detrimental  to  the  high  ideals 
held  up  by  Christ  than  fornication.  No  crime 
serves  so  effectually  to  coarsen  and  degrade  a  man 
as  this  double  offense  against  both  manhood  and 
womanhood.  All  sin  is  essentially  animal,  but 
fornication  is  the  most  animal  of  all  sins.  Chris- 
tianity teaches  universally  the  single  standard  in 
morals,  and  demands  that  purity  of  heart  and  life 
from  man  which  man  has  always  demanded  from 
woman.  The  operation  of  ordinary  evolution 
makes  men  truthful  rather  than  chaste,  and  women 
chaste  rather  than  truthful.  Christianity,  how- 
ever, says  to  man,  "  Be  thou  chaste " ;  and  to 
woman,  '*  Be  thou  truthful."  Sexual  purity,  both 
of  man  and  woman,  is  essential  to  good  health,  good 
morals,  good  civilization  and  good  religion. 

The  Christ  ideal  in  regard  to  property  rights  may 
be  summarized  under  three  divisions :  (1)  honesty, 
illustrated  by  His  discourses  against  theft,  His  en- 
dorsement of  the  Mosaic  doctrine  upon  the  subject 
and  His  prompt  payment  of  tribute ;  (2)  the  proper 
estimate  of  wealth ;  and  (3)  the  proper  use  of 
material  resources. 

In  attempting  a  digest  of  His  teaching  regarding 
the  second  division,  we  are  confronted  by  abundant 
material.     From  the  time  the  devil  tempted  Him 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       57 

to  no  purpose  with  the  enormous  bribe  of  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth,  down  to  the  time  when 
Judas  betrayed  Him  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  His 
supreme  disregard  for  mere  money,  as  money, 
becomes  apparent.  We  are  not  to  suppose,  how- 
ever, that  Christ  despised  business,  or  that  He  con- 
demned trade.  His  greatest  apostle  advised  the 
early  disciples  to  "  be  not  slothful  in  business,"  and 
worked  with  his  own  hands  as  a  craftsman  ;  and  the 
Teacher  of  Nazareth  Himself  began  life  as  a  car- 
penter. Business,  to  Chi^ist,  was  the  same  as  any 
other  calling  ;  but  the  purposeless  accumulation  of 
money,  or  of  any  sort  of  material  possessions,  He 
regarded  as  the  supremest  folly.  Christ's  estimate 
of  material  wealth  was  based  entirely  upon  its  in- 
fluence for  or  against  the  development  of  the  spir- 
itual life. 

In  regard  to  the  third  division  Christ  speaks  in 
no  uncertain  tones.  Whenever  wealth  is  used  to 
negate  the  spiritual  life,  it  is  abused.  Because  it  is 
so  difficult  to  avoid  this  abuse,  He  is  inclined  to 
regard  the  rich  man  as  more  unfortunate  than  the 
poor  man.  In  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus,  Dives  has  decidedly  the  more  undesirable 
side  of  the  bargain.  And  Dives's  sin  is  not  that 
he  has  been  a  thief,  a  murderer  or  an  adulterer,  but 
that  his  wealth  has  closed  his  heart  to  charity  and 


68  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

built  up  within  his  soul  the  hell  of  the  selfish  life. 
Between  him  and  Lazarus  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed 
— the  impassable  gulf  between  the  selfish  and  the 
unselfish  soul.  The  possession  of  wealth  among 
the  early  Christians  seems  to  have  been  rather 
unusual.  In  the  first  community  at  Jerusalem, 
Barnabas  and  others  sold  their  property  and  gave 
the  proceeds  to  the  Church.  They  did  this,  it  is 
distinctly  stated,  not  in  obedience  to  any  regulation 
upon  the  subject,  but  solely  because  they  believed 
it  was  what  Christ  would  have  done  under  the  same 
circumstances.  Christ's  doctrine  in  regard  to  prop- 
erty and  material  possessions  is  best  understood  by 
keeping  in  mind  His  general  concept  of  the  supreme 
reality  and  worth  of  the  spiritual  life. 

In  the  natural  order  of  things,  the  question  of 
property  rights  leads  to  the  consideration  of  Chris- 
tian citizenship.  One  of  the  most  striking  things 
about  Christianity  is  its  doctrine  of  civil  obedience. 
To  respect  the  law  was  among  the  very  first  of  the 
duties  inculcated  by  the  Man  of  Galilee.  No  one 
could  have  been  more  punctual  in  his  obedience  to 
civil  authority.  His  ideas  in  this  respect  ran  parallel 
to  those  of  Socrates.  The  early  Christians  were 
scrupulous  in  their  observance  of  law,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  religious  conflict.     The  general  atti- 


FIRST  IDEAL— EIGHTEOUSNESS       59 

tude  of  Christ  towards  civil  innovations  was  one  of 
evolution,  rather  than  of  iconoclasm.  He  hurled 
no  polemics  at  slavery,  despotism,  cruel  punish- 
ments or  female  degradation  ;  but  all  these  things 
have  melted  av^ray  beneath  the  influence  of  His 
teaching.  So  far  as  any  outward  expression  is  con- 
cerned, no  one  can  authoritatively  say  whether 
Christ  was  a  monarchist,  a  republican  or  a  socialist. 
Had  He  lived  under  any  of  these  forms  of  govern- 
ment, He  would  doubtless  have  yielded  quiet  and 
law-abiding  submission.  Of  one  thing  only  are  we 
assured  in  regard  to  His  politics,  and  that  is  that 
He  believed  in  obeying  the  law.  Christianity  was 
once  accused  of  being  radical  upon  political  ques- 
tions— now  it  is  generally  attacked  because  of 
its  conservatism.  Modern  socialism  opposes  the 
Church  ofttimes  because  of  its  alliance  with  estab- 
lished custom.  With  the  red  flag  t}^e  of  either 
anarchism  or  socialism,  Christianity  has  indeed 
nothing  to  do.  With  the  entrenched  power  of  so- 
cial or  political  corruption,  it  has  even  less.  As 
regards  political  questions  of  the  present  day,  the 
function  of  the  Christian  is  flrst  ethical,  and  second 
intellectual.  In  other  words,  every  Christian  is 
under  obligation  to  stand  first  for  clean  morals,  re- 
gardless of  other  considerations,  and  second  for  in- 
dividual political  judgment.     Business  comes  before 


60  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

party  with  the  ward-heeler  and  the  saloon-keeper, 
and  morality  ought  to  come  before  party  with  the 
Christian. 

Perhaps  the  most  comprehensive  term  included 
under  the  ideal  of  righteousness  is  that  of  tem- 
perance. The  word  temperance  has  been  much 
abused.  Sometimes  it  has  been  used  to  include 
practically  all  of  the  virtues  of  the  human  charac- 
ter, sometimes  it  has  been  so  narrowed  as  to  apply 
only  to  total  abstinence  from  the  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages.  As  we  shall  use  it  here,  its  violation 
will  include  the  following  things :  (1)  the  abuse  of 
naturally  good  impulses  ;  (2)  the  use  of  artificial 
and  injurious  agencies  ;  and  (3)  the  misuse  of  arti- 
ficial but,  under  certain  circumstances,  helpful 
articles.  Under  the  first  head  come  all  sorts  of 
perversion  of  naturally  good  impulses  and  passions, 
such  as  (a)  the  appetite  for  food,  {h)  the  desire  to 
care  properly  for  the  person,  and  (c)  the  sexual  im- 
pulse. These  desires  are  good,  and  tend  to  happi- 
ness of  life,  when  properly  controlled  and  regulated. 
When  abused,  however,  there  are  no  more  certain 
avenues  to  misery,  destruction  and  death.  The 
second  class  includes  the  use  of  all  artificial  drugs 
which  are  not  naturally  intended  for  food  or  drink. 
Most  stimulants  and  narcotics  come  under  this  class. 


FIEST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       61 

especially  alcohol  and  opium.  No  slavery  is  more 
galling  and  complete  than  that  which  these  agencies 
establish ;  while  aside  from  the  injury  done  the 
body,  they  dethrone  the  will  and  make  the  man 
a  moral  ^\Teck.  The  third  class  refers  to  those 
agencies  which  are  perhaps  not  especially  harmful 
in  themselves,  nor  individually  destructive  to  some 
who  partake  of  them.  Their  general  use,  however, 
would  lead  to  bad  results,  and  in  specific  cases  to 
destruction  and  ruin.  In  regard  to  these  articles, 
which  include  among  others  the  less  harmful  nar- 
cotics, the  Christian  must  determine  whether  or 
not  the  law  of  liberty  is  overbalanced  by  the  law  of 
service.  "  If  meat  make  my  brother  to  offend,"  I 
should  dispense  with  meat.  My  brother's  spiritual 
welfare  is  worth  more  than  the  gratification  of  my 
carnal  appetite.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  higher 
and  more  important  considerations  should  have 
precedence  over  the  lower. 

Two  other  virtues  which  enter  into  the  concept 
of  righteousness  as  Christ  used  it,  but  which  we  can 
do  no  more  than  name,  as  having  been  in  substance 
already  included,  are  the  fine  old  doctrine  of  rev- 
erence, and  the  superb  and  in  a  certain  sense  in- 
clusive virtue  of  loyalty.  Eeverence  is  as  closely 
aUied  to  humility  as  loyalty  is  to  duty,  so  that  we 


62  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

need  not  discuss  them  further.  The  man  who  is 
humble  need  not  be  taught  the  meaning  of  rever- 
ence, and  the  disciple  of  duty  will  find  it  easy  to 
be  loyal.  All  true  virtues  are  related,  but  there  is 
an  especially  close  affinity  existing  between  these 
kindred  excellences. 

It  is  not  to  be  presumed  that  this  analysis  ex- 
hausts the  content  of  Christ's  teaching  regarding 
the  individual.  It  is  safe  to  say,  however,  that  the 
man  or  woman  who  thoroughly  understands  His 
doctrine  with  reference  to  these  things  will  not  go 
far  wrong  regarding  anything  else.  It  is  also  safe 
to  say  that  any  approximation,  even,  in  the  way  of 
realizing  His  ideals  in  this  field  would  work  a 
transformation  in  the  world.  Herein  consists  the 
supreme  utility  of  the  preacher.  Upon  him,  more 
than  any  one  else,  is  imposed  the  burden  of  being 
one  who  holds  great  moral  ideals  up  before  the  peo- 
ple. When  he  preaches  the  Gospel,  this  is  what  he 
preaches,  at  least  in  very  large  measure.  The 
Gospel  is  only  secondarily  a  matter  of  church  forms 
or  theologies.  Primarily,  it  is  a  teaching  regard- 
ing life  ;  it  deals  with  men's  every-day  behavior  ;  it 
is  a  great  moral  influence  and  power.  The 
preacher  who  proclaims  the  Gospel  will  preach 
these  things  a  large  part  of  his  time.     Christ's  final 


FIRST  IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS       63 

word  to  His  chief  lieutenant  was  not  evangelization, 
as  much  as  He  emphasized  the  latter,  but  pastoral 
care.  "  Feed  My  lambs."  "  Feed  My  sheep." 
"Feed  My  sheep."  These  words  must  not  be  held 
to  negate  the  evangelizing  features  of  the  Great 
Commission,  but  must  always  be  considered  in  con- 
nection with  them. 

As  we  meditate  more  and  more  upon  the  crystal 
perfection  of  the  Christ  ideal  of  righteousness,  we 
are  led  to  say  with  Sidney  Lanier  : 


But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  sovereign  Seer  of  time. 

But  Thee,  O  poets'  Poet,  wisdom's  Tongue, 

But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Mau,  O  love's  best  Love, 

O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labor  writ, 

O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King  or  Priest — 

What  if  or  yet^  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 

What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect. 

What  rumor,  tattled  by  an  enemy, 

Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace 

Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's,  or  death's — 

Oh,  what  amiss  may  T  forgive  in  Thee, 

Jesus,  good  Paragon,  Thou  Crystal  Christ  %  '^ 


II 

THE  SECOND  GEEAT  IDEAL  OF   CHEIST 
— SEKVICE 

THE  first  great  ideal  of  Christ  was  the 
supreme  ideal  of  the  individual  life,  the 
goal  of  personal  righteousness.  Next 
to,  and  of  equal  importance  with  this  goal,  He 
enunciated  the  great  social  ideal,  the  gospel  of 
service.  It  found  expression  in  many  of  the  best 
known  phrases  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and 
afterwards  in  such  utterances  as :  "  The  Son  of  Man 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and 
to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many  ;  "  and  "  He  that 
would  be  greatest  among  you,  let  him  become  the 
servant  of  all."  The  rich  young  ruler  is  not  only 
told  to  obey  the  Commandments,  but  he  is  also  in- 
structed, "  Sell  all  thou  hast  and  give  it  unto  the 
poor  " — that  is,  become  obedient  to  the  law  of 
service.  And  it  is  just  this  ideal  of  service  which 
has  proven,  more  than  anything  else  about  Chiis- 
tianity,  the  leavening  power  of  the  world.  It  in- 
spired Francis  of  Assisi  to  become  the  veritable 
saint  of  mediaeval  Christendom.     It  made  possible 

64 


SECOND  IDEAL— SERVICE  65 

the  work  of  Florence  Nightingale  and  John 
Howard,  and  Frances  Willard  and  Clara  Barton, 
and  the  other  servants  of  the  world  since  the  time 
of  the  Christ  Himself.  It  has  lightened  the 
burdens  of  the  poor,  built  hospitals  for  the  sick, 
helped  to  soothe  the  misery  of  the  blind  and  the 
afflicted,  and  in  a  thousand  ways  softened  the  sor- 
rows of  the  world.  The  ideal  of  service  has  made 
physicians  willing  to  run  every  sort  of  risk  in  order 
to  discover  some  means  of  fighting  disease,  that 
humanity  might  be  benefited  thereby.  It  has 
made  missionaries  willing  to  become  martyrs,  and 
has  transformed  commonplace  men  and  women 
into  veritable  heroes  and  heroines.  It  inspired  the 
Beatrice  of  Dante,  and  the  Cordelia  and  Desdemona 
and  Imogen  of  Shakespeare,  and  the  Blessed  Damo- 
zel  of  Rosetti,  and  the  Eugenie  Grandet  of  Balzac, 
and  the  Pompilia  of  Robert  Browning.  It  was  the 
ideal  of  service  which  caused  Alice  Cary  to  write 
that  sweetest  of  American  lyrics  of  duty,  the  lines 
known  to  every  schoolboy : 

''  True  worth  is  in  being,  not  seeming, — 
In  doing,  each  day  that  goes  by, 
Some  small  good,  not  in  dreaming 
Of  great  things  to  do  by  and  by  ; 
For  whatever  men  say  in  their  blindness, 
And  spite  of  the  fancies  of  youth, 
There  is  nothing  so  kingly  as  kindness, 
And  nothing  so  royal  as  truth. ' ' 


66  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

It  was  the  ideal  of  service  which  inspired  even  so 
rebellious  a  writer  as  Byron  to  say  : 

**  The  drying  up  of  a  single  tear  has  more 
Of  honest  fame,  than  shedding  seas  of  gore.^^ 

It  was  back,  too,  of  the  wild  altruism  of  Shelley 
and  the  contemplative  goodness  of  Wordsworth. 
It  made  John  Ruskin,  the  greatest  art  critic  of 
England,  say  that  the  ultimate  test  of  a  truly  great 
man  is  always  his  humility — his  willingness  to 
serve.  It  inspired  the  Madonnas  of  Raphael  and 
the  frescoes  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  it  wrote  itself 
in  stone  in  the  cathedrals  of  the  Renaissance  and 
the  hospitals  and  foundling  asylums  of  the  modern 
age.  It  is  back  of  our  laws  for  the  protection  of 
the  needy,  and  it  is  the  heart  and  core  of  the  best 
that  is  in  our  modern  civilization.  He  who  would 
take  Christian  altruism,  the  ideal  of  service,  out  of 
the  world,  would  plunge  it  into  chaos  and  darkness, 
and  make  it  a  hotbed  of  debauchery  and  crime. 

The  ground  of  this  doctrine  of  service  was  em- 
phasized by  the  Great  Teacher  as  the  essential 
fatherhood  of  God  and  the  consequent  brotherhood 
of  man.  This  teaching  was  especially  foreign  and 
repugnant  to  Christ's  own  people.  Jehovah,  to  the 
Jew,  was  a  national  Deity,  who  had  no  regard  for 
the  heathen,  and  showered  His  blessings  upon  His 


SECOND  IDEAL— SERVICE  67 

peculiar  people  alone.  The  Canaanite,  the  Amal- 
ekite,  the  Gentile,  the  Samaritan,  were  not  in  any 
sense  brothers  to  the  Jew.  The  hardest  battle 
which  Christianity  had  to  fight  in  Judea  was  due 
to  this  inherent  racial  exclusiveness.  The  parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan  was  the  most  diificult  lesson 
of  all  for  a  Jew  to  accept.  So  it  came  about  that 
the  first  schism  in  the  early  Church  was  due  to  this 
prejudiced  racial  and  national  feeling.  Service,  al- 
truism, was,  however,  the  lesson  upon  which  the 
Great  Teacher  insisted  most  strenuously.  *'The 
Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to 
minister,"  was  the  watchword  of  His  life.  Again, 
He  said  to  the  wrangling  disciples,  "  I  am  among 
you  as  he  that  serveth."  In  His  picture  of  the  Last 
Judgment,  the  ultimate  test  is  the  life  of  service. 
The  final  requirement,  as  we  have  seen,  laid  upon 
the  rich  young  ruler,  is  the  requirement  of  serv- 
ice. Dives,  in  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus,  is  lost  because  he  will  not  serve.  From 
His  first  sermon  at  Nazareth  to  His  last  consoling 
words  uttered  to  the  thief  upon  the  cross,  the  motto 
of  Christ  was  the  motto  which  was  so  worthily  se- 
lected afterwards  as  the  watchword  of  the  greatest 
kingdom  of  modern  times— ''Ich  Dien"  (I  serve). 

The  highest  title  which  Christ  ever  claimed  was 
that  of  the  Son  of  Man.     In  this  one  phrase  was 


68  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

embodied  His  conception  of  the  sublime  dignity  of 
service.  To  serve  His  fellow  man  was  to  Him  the 
supreme  honor  of  all.  It  has  sometimes  been 
urged  that  no  progress  would  take  place  in  the 
world  if  the  spur  of  individual  initiative  were  re- 
moved— that  men  will  labor  well  only  when  each 
man  labors  for  himself.  But  Christ  put  the  motive 
of  the  common  good  far  above  this.  ''He  that 
would  be  greatest  among  you  let  him  become  the 
servant  of  all,"  was  the  ideal  He  held  up  before  His 
disciples.  When  Satan  on  the  Mount  of  Tempta- 
tion held  out  the  bribe  of  individual  reward,  he  was 
promptly  dismissed.  When  the  mother  of  Zebe- 
dee's  children  desired  places  of  honor  for  her  sons 
in  the  kingdom  of  the  Nazarene,  she  was  told  that 
His  kingdom  was  not  like  the  kingdoms  of  the 
Gentiles,  but  that  the  highest  motive  and  reward 
which  it  held  out  was  the  consideration,  not  of  self- 
advancement,  but  of  the  common  good — the  service 
of  all. 

Was  not  therefore  the  cooperative,  rather  than 
the  competitive  principle,  the  basis  of  Christ's 
teaching?  Our  answer  must  be  here  as  in  our 
study  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount — as  an  ideal, 
yes.  Are  we  ready  to  substitute  cooperation  for 
competition  ?  That  depends.  This  much,  however, 
is  certainly  true.     "  The  survival  of  the  fittest  "  is 


SECOND  IDEAL— SERVICE  69 

not  the  law  of  Christ's  kingdom.  The  most  funda- 
mental revolution  which  His  teaching  involved  was 
due  to  His  substitution  of  the  law  of  altruism  for 
the  law  of  sellish  competition.  The  world  up  to 
Christ  had  developed  along  the  lines  of  egoism  and 
the  struggle  for  existence.  The  world  from  Christ 
on  to  the  Millennium  will  develop  along  the  lines 
of  altruism  and  the  common  weal.  Christianity  is 
essentially  individualistic  in  philosophy,  but  altru- 
istic in  life.  It  puts  man  first  in  the  universe  ;  it 
makes  his  soul  worth  more  than  a  material  world  ; 
but  it  teaches  likewise  the  solidarity  of  men.  From 
its  point  of  view  the  individual  soul  that  is  worth 
while  is  the  soul  that  lives  for  all.  God  is  the  one 
great  soul  because  He  lives  thus  in  the  fullest  sense  ; 
and  we  become  Godlike  just  in  proportion  as  our 
souls  grow  larger  and  embrace  the  service  of  all. 

That  the  ground  of  service  and  the  dignity  of 
service  are  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity 
admits  of  no  dispute.  When,  however,  we  come  to 
the  question  of  the  proper  expression  of  the  altruis- 
tic spirit,  we  have  a  different  problem  before  us. 
Good  intentions  alone  never  afforded  permanent 
help  to  any  one  ;  and  good  intentions,  backed  even 
by  material  but  misdirected  resources,  sometimes 
do  more  harm  than  good.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to 
give  away  money  properly,  as  many  wealthy  and 


70  VITAL  CHEISTIANITY 

well-intentioned  men  have  found  out.  As  a  pre- 
requisite of  all  true  service,  Christ  demands  the 
spiiit  of  love  first  of  all.  Any  other  motive  ren- 
ders the  service,  if  not  valueless  entirely,  at  least 
profitless  to  the  giver.  In  addition  to  the  true 
spirit  of  service,  He  demands  a  rational  and  intelli- 
gent du^ection  of  effort.  ]^o  specific  laws  are  laid 
down  to  govern  this  direction,  it  being  essential 
that  it  should  change  in  its  expression  from  age  to 
age.  In  Christ's  time,  individual  relief,  such  as 
was  afforded  by  the  Good  Samaritan,  was,  in  a  ma- 
terial way,  the  only  means  by  which  service  could 
be  rendered.  It  would  seem  that  with  a  more  en- 
lightened civilization,  individual  charity  might  well, 
in  large  measure,  give  place  to  cooperative  relief. 
In  any  case,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
true  service  is  always,  not  simply  providing  for 
physical  needs,  but  rather  in  helping  to  build  up 
nobility  of  character.  The  charity  which  makes  a 
man  less  a  man  is  almost  if  not  entirely  as  great 
a  sin  as  the  altogether  uncharitable  spirit.  ISTo 
greater  crime  can  be  committed  against  the  soul  of 
a  man  than  to  make  a  pauper  of  him.  To  do  so, 
with  whatever  good  intentions,  is  not  to  serve  him, 
but  to  injure  him.  Society  has  much  for  which  to 
answer  because  of  mistakes  in  this  direction.  Main- 
taining too  often  a  false  system  of  feudal  supremacy 


SECOND  IDEAL— SERVICE  Yl 

which  gave  unjust  privileges  to  the  few,  and  de- 
prived the  many  of  their  just  rights,  it  has  striven 
to  make  up  for  the  wrong  by  a  mistaken  system  of 
benevolence,  v/hich  builds  almshouses  for  victims 
of  injustice,  and  feeds  soup  in  winter  to  people  un- 
able, but  anxious  to  earn  their  bread.  The  world 
has  at  times  played  both  knave  and  fool.  Having 
climbed  out  of  knavery  in  the  matter  of  service,  it 
is  time  also  that  it  should  cease  to  play  the  fool. 

We  find,  therefore,  that  two  principles  must  gov- 
ern our  efforts  if  we  are  to  serve  the  world  as  Christ 
would  have  us :  first,  the  spirit  of  love ;  and  second, 
the  spirit  of  rational  du'ection.  In  endeavoring 
to  help  others  we  should  always  remember  that 
soul  values  have  precedence  over  material  con- 
siderations ;  but  that  bodily  relief  is  the  necessary 
prerequisite  of  everything  else.  It  is  useless  to 
preach  to  people  when  they  are  hungry  or  lack 
the  physical  necessities  of  life.  "We  should  remem- 
ber also  that  the  best  way  to  help  others  is  to  enable 
them  to  help  themselves  ;  and  that  there  is  no  war- 
rant in  Christ's  teaching  for  indiscriminate,  that  is 
unintelligent,  charity.  Such  charity  is  indeed  the 
poorest  service  of  all.  Finally,  we  need  to  remem- 
ber that  all  schemes  of  social  reconstruction  are 
valuable  only  in  so  far  as  they  guarantee  individual 
betterment.     The    individual    is  the  unit  in  the 


72  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

Christian  economy, — the  unselfish  individual  it  is 
true,  but  still  the  individual.  Only  the  soul  whom 
the  spirit  of  service  and  love  has  made  one  with  the 
universe,  so  that  every  sorrowing  creature  of  God 
has  his  interest  and  sympathy,  is  completely  a 
Christian. 

**  He  prayeth  well  who  loveth  well 
Both  man  and  bird  and  beast. 

He  prayeth  best,  who  loveth  best 
All  things,  both  great  and  small ; 

For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 


Ill 


THE  THIED  GEEAT  IDEAL  OF  CHEIST— 
FEEEDOM 


HP 


HE  gospel  of  service,  however  important, 
.  does  not  of  itself  exhaust  the  content  of 
Christianity.  To  the  Mosaic  code,  the 
moral  teaching  of  Moses  and  of  Sinai,  Christ  added 
not  only  the  ideal  of  service,  but  also  the  ideal  of 
freedom.  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free,"  He  told  the  early  disciples 
who  thronged  about  Him.  There  was  no  theme 
dearer  to  His  heart  than  that  of  the  glorious 
freedom  of  the  Sons  of  God.  It  had  been  said  of 
Him  by  the  prophet  of  old  that  He  should  come  to 
*^  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captive  and  the  opening 
of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound."  Our  free 
institutions,  the  great  doctrine  of  the  world-wide 
brotherhood  of  man,  the  germs  of  truth  which 
sprang  into  life  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Bastile 
and  the  Ee volution  of  '76 — these  all  are  but  scat- 
tered rays  from  the  great  central  sun,  the  ideal  of 
freedom  proclaimed  and  inculcated  by  the  Christ. 
Back  of  the  Peace  Conferences,  recently  in  session 
at  the  Hague,  lies  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samari- 

73 


74  VITAL  CHEISTIANITY 

tan ;  and  back  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  lies  the  Constitution  of  the  Man  of  Galilee. 
It  is  true  that  despotism  has  sometimes  ruled  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  just  as  more  than  one  tyrant  has 
committed  incest  and  murder  in  the  name  of 
religion ;  but  it  is  likewise  true  that  the  world  has 
steadily  advanced  to  freedom  under  the  banner  of 
the  Nazarene.  The  freest  nations  upon  the  face 
of  the  globe  to-day  are  the  Christian  nations. 
Freedom,  therefore,  no  less  than  service,  constitutes 
a  'watchword  of  Christianity. 
.  When  Christianity  came,  the  world  was  largely 
a  slave  camp.  Greek  civilization  at  its  best  pre- 
supposed the  institution  of  slavery,  and  Eoman 
culture  was  little  if  any  better.  With  the  disap- 
pearance of  slavery  as  an  institution  in  Europe, 
came  the  rise  of  the  feudal  system  and  the  story  of 
the  serf.  The  misinterpreted  Christianity  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  of  the  early  Modern  Era  forged 
new  shackles  for  humanity,  and  built  dungeons 
instead  of  opening  the  doors  of  the  prisons.  The 
Bastile  was  reared  upon  the  fabric  of  a  professedly 
religious  monarchy,  and  the  torture  chambers  of  the 
Inquisition  were  ruled  over  by  priests.  No  tyranny 
in  the  history  of  the  world  has  proven  more  un- 
bearable than  the  tyranny  of  ecclesiasticism.  The 
French  Kevolution,  with  the  parallel  movements  in 


THIRD  IDEAL— FREEDOM     75 

other  nations,  finally  burst  the  shackles  of  the 
serf  and  brought  genuine  freedom  to  humanity. 
Nowhere  has  the  fundamental  distinction  between 
vital  and  formal  Christianity,  when  the  two  are 
once  separated,  become  more  apparent  than  in 
connection  with  the  ideal  of  freedom.  Forms  by 
nature  tend  to  enslave,  and  hence  the  slight  attention 
paid  by  Christ  Himself  to  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion. Enslavement  brings  with  it  a  certain  power  ; 
but  it  is  a  weaker  power  than  the  force  of  united 
free  men.  Armies  composed  of  slaves,  when  well 
directed,  have  accomplished  a  good  deal;  but 
armies  composed  of  free  men  will  always  accom- 
plish more.  Christ  fought  an  ecclesiasticism  all  His 
life,  attempted  to  found  no  ecclesiasticism  for  Him- 
self, and  was  put  to  death  by  an  ecclesiasticism  at 
last.  Notwithstanding  these  facts,  after  His  death 
His  name  became  the  basis  for  one  of  the  most 
gigantic  ecclesiastical  tyrannies  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  a  tyranny  which  at  one  time  in  its  history 
would  have  crucified  Him  summarily,  or  at  least 
burned  Him  at  the  stake,  if  He  had  appeared  in  His 
own  Church  and  preached  His  own  doctrine. 

No  question  has  been  more  widely  discussed  than 
the  much  vexed  topic  of  the  "  freedom  of  the  will." 
John    Milton,    in   "  Paradise  Lost,"  pictures  the 


76  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

fallen  spirits  debating  freedom  in  the  realm  of 
Pandemonium ;  and  it  holds  a  place,  along  with  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  as  one  of  the  two  great 
problems  in  the  philosophy  of  the  world.  It  is 
quite  needless  to  say  that  with  the  metaphysical 
question  as  such,  we  have  nothing  to  do.  Our  only 
concern  is  to  find  out  what  Chi'ist  taught  in  regard 
to  practical  life.  This  would  seem  to  be  easy 
enough.  It  is  the  simplest  truism  in  the  world  to 
say  that  the  Man  of  Galilee  never  in  one  recorded 
utterance  discounted  the  full  measure  of  human 
responsibility  and  accountability.  When  He  said, 
"  Come  unto  Me,"  He  implied  that  men  could  come. 
When  He  said,  "  Whosoever  belie  vet  h  in  Him  shall 
not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life,"  He  implied 
again  that  "  whosoever "  included  all  who  heard 
the  words  and  willed  to  accept  them.  When  He 
said ''  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature.  He  meant  that  all  and  every  were 
fitting  and  proper  words  to  be  used  as  He  used 
them.  The  Christian,  then,  whether  layman  or 
preacher,  is  fully  justified  at  all  times  in  assuming 
three  things :  first,  that  men  need  to  be  saved ; 
second,  that  they  can  be  saved  ;  and  third,  that  it  is 
his  business  to  try  to  save  them.  Metaphysical  dis- 
cussions in  regard  to  human  accountability  and  the 
like  are  entirely  out  of  place.     The  assumption  of 


THIRD  IDEAL— FREEDOM     77 

all  religion  is  that  men  can  be  saved  if  they  wiU, 
and  it  is  also  its  assumption  that  they  can  will  to 
be  saved.  Much  f  atile  argument  has  been  indulged 
in  regarding  the  relations  of  will  and  belief.  A 
man  cannot  believe  or  will  to  believe  that  which 
his  reason  pronounces  false ;  but  a  man  can  and 
must  wall  to  believe  in  those  things  which  are 
essential  to  his  moral  life,  and  in  regard  to  which 
reason  cannot  pass.  IngersoU's  dictum  that  the 
most  cruel  words  in  the  world  are  "  He  that  be- 
lieveth  not  shall  be  damned"  arose  from  a  mis- 
apprehension of  the  nature  of  belief.  Salvation  or 
destruction  in  this  world  and  in  the  next  depends 
and  must  depend  upon  an  act  of  will.  To  will  to 
accept  a  high  ideal  of  life  means  to  will  salvation. 
To  refuse  to  will  thus  means  to  accept  destruction. 
Supremely  true  it  is  that  in  the  last  analysis  "  We 
are  the  masters  of  our  fate,"  and  "  the  captains  of 
oui'  souls." 

Intellectual  freedom  is  the  last  phase  of  the  last 
great  ideal  of  Christ.  Even  to-day  there  is  much 
confusion  regarding  its  province.  Every  attempt  to 
bind  the  mind  by  dogma  violates  the  principle,  and 
many  attempts  have  been  made  in  the  history  of 
Christianity.  The  question  of  creed  more  properly 
belongs  to  formal  Christianity,  and  will  be  treated 


78  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

when  the  latter  comes  under  discussion.  Nothing 
can  be  clearer,  however,  than  the  fact  that  Christ 
laid  down  no  philosophy  as  a  test  of  Christianity, 
and  that  He  carefully  avoided  all  questions  of 
speculative  dogma.  He  asserted  that  men  must  be- 
lieve in  Him,  but  never  in  any  theory  of  Him.  He 
knew  that  the  essential  principle  of  His  religion 
was  decision  of  will,  and  not  speculation  concern- 
ing life.  Hence  He  was  a  religious  teacher,  and 
not  a  theologian.  Had  He  based  His  religion 
upon  a  particular  philosophy,  it  would  either  have 
been  unintelligible  and  therefore  useless  to  all  but" 
the  last  cycle  of  men,  or  else  it  would  have  been 
outgrown  in  the  onward  march  of  human  develop- 
ment. Therefore  He  proclaimed  no  creed  save  an 
affirmation  of  will  as  regards  His  ideal  of  life — 
something  which  will  be  intelligible  to  the  last 
man  who  will  live  upon  the  planet,  and  which  has 
been  intelligible  since  He  first  preached  it  by  the 
shores  of  Galilee.  It  is  sufficient,  and  it  cannot  be 
outgrown.  His  followers,  however,  were  not  so 
wise.  From  the  very  first,  they  began  to  interpret 
His  message  philosophically,  and  demand  unhesitat- 
ing obedience  to  each  successive  interpretation. 
Hence  the  long  list  of  weather-beaten  and  storm- 
shattered  creeds  v\^hich  strew  the  shores  of  Time. 
To-day,   we    are    surely  outgrowing    the  creedal 


THIRD  IDEAL— FREEDOM  Y9 

stage ;  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  that  absolute 
freedom  of  thought  which  Christ  came  to  proclaim 
will  be  guaranteed  b}^  all  of  His  followers.  A 
caution  at  this  point  should  not  be  neglected. 
Thinking  and  decision  are  by  no  means  one.  A 
man  should  think  a  great  deal  and  decide  com- 
paratively little.  Much  thought  w411  hurt  no  one, 
so  long  as  he  carefully  controls  his  will  and  selects 
only  with  the  greatest  caution  the  roving  ideas 
which  range  before  him.  He  must  think  freely 
and  honestly  if  he  is  to  think  in  the  true  sense  at 
all ;  but  he  will  utterly  ruin  his  career  if  he  at- 
tempts to  precipitate  his  life  and  destiny  in  the 
direction  of  every  wandering  thought.  Multum 
non  multa  must  be  his  rule  as  regards  decision 
and  action. 

"We  are  inclined,  I  think,  at  times  to  forget  that 
the  Christ  ideal,  the  building  up  of  the  lives  of 
purity,  of  service  and  of  freedom  among  men,  is  the 
real  essence  of  the  Master's  teaching.  Nothing  is 
clearer,  however,  than  that  this  is  the  object  and 
goal  of  the  Christ,  and  that  other  things,  matters  of 
organization  and  the  like,  are  only  means  to  the  end 
proposed.  And  to-day,  no  matter  how  many  names 
a  church  may  count  upon  its  roll,  it  has  only  as 
many  Christians  as  it  has  people  who  are  trying  to 
develop  the  ideals  of  righteousness,  of  service  and 


80  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

of  freedom  in  their  lives.  These  are  the  ultimate 
essentials,  and  other  things  are  necessarilj  subsidiary 
to  them. 

The  religion  of  Christ  has  had  many  martyrs. 
Some  have  died  for  the  cause  of  righteousness, 
some  have  won  their  crowns  trying  to  realize  the 
ideal  of  service ;  but  the  sacred  name  of  freedom 
has  claimed  the  greatest  host  of  all.  Axe  and 
fagot  and  rack  have  been  used  to  crush  this  latest 
and  fairest  flower  of  the  ages,  but  it  blooms 
securely,  despite  all  efforts  to  kill  it. 

''  They  never  fail  who  die 
In  a  great  cause.     The  block  may  soak  their  gore  ; 
Their  heads  may  sodden  in  the  sun  ;  their  limbs 
Be  strung  to  city  gates  or  castle  walls  ; 
But  still  their  spirit  walks  abroad.     Though  years 
Elapse,  and  others  share  as  dark  a  doom, 
They  but  augment  the  great  and  sweeping  thoughts 
That  overspread  all  others,  and  conduct 
The  world  at  last  to  freedom." 


{b)  The  Future 


lY 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  SUPEENATUE AL  ^ 
IN  CHEIST'S  TEACHING 

C  HEIST'S  teaching,  while  supremely  prac- 
tical, and  in  no  respect  other-worldly,  using 
the  term  in  the  monastic  sense,  looked 
constantly  to  the  future.  Future  and  present  were 
indeed  one  to  Him.  He  saw  everything  in  its 
eternal  relations,  or  as  Spinoza  long  after  said, 
"  suh  specie  eternitatisP  To  one  with  this  point  of 
view,  the  present,  while  important  in  its  bearings 
upon  the  future,  possessed  little  significance  con- 
sidered by  itself.  What  were  thirty-three  years  of 
life  worth,  when  compared  with  an  infinite  past, 
and  a  no  less  infinite  future  ?  Hence  the  trivial 
things  which  usually  cause  men  so  much  anxiety 
never  disturbed  the  equanimity  of  the  Nazarene. 
What  did  it  amount  to  whether  He  had  a  bed  or 
not,  for  one  night  out  of  one  year  out  of  an  un- 

*  The  word  "supernatural"  is  now  much  tabooed.  We  have 
found  no  other  popular  expression,  however,  which  quite  takes 
its  place.  The  sense  in  which  the  term  is  used  is  fully  explained 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  present  chapter. 

81 


\>o 


82  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

counted  number  of  years?  Still  less  important 
than  a  bed  was  the  idea  of  accumulating  money,  in 
a  world  which  existed  to  Him  for  only  thirty-three 
years.  Material  money  does  not  circulate  in  Eter- 
nity, and  hence  the  significance  of  the  passage, 
"  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth, 
where  moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where 
thieves  break  through  and  steal ;  but  lay  up  for 
yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,  where  neither  moth 
nor  rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves  do  not 
break  through  nor  steal."  Christ's  teaching  in  re- 
gard to  the  future  world  has,  however,  proven  the 
crux  of  His  system  with  many.  Over  against  the 
credulous  man,  who  delights  in  miracles  for  their 
own  sake,  is  the  dyed-in-the-wool  skeptic  who,  like 
David  Hume,  argues  that  no  amount  of  evidence 
can  prove  a  miracle.  Yery  few  people  outside  of 
the  ultra-ignorant  or  the  ultra-perverse  will  dispute 
the  logic  of  Christ's  teaching  in  regard  to  practical 
living ;  but  many  people  who  accept  this  will  not 
believe  that  He  walked  on  the  water,  or  rose  from 
the  dead.  But  even  for  these  people,  the  question 
of  the  future  life  will  not  down.  Every  time  they 
stand  beside  the  grave  it  occurs  ;  and  not  a  single 
day  passes  without  some  suggestion  of  its  presence. 
Christ's  answer  may  not  suit  them,  but  some  answer 
they  must  give  to  the  question.     The  gloomy  solu- 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL  83 

tion  of  the  agnostic  recognizes  the  validity  of  the 
problem  no  less  than  the  teaching  of  the  Gospels 
recognizes  it.  At  least  one-half  of  the  writings  of 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John  deal  with  it,  and 
the  proportion  is  certainly  not  beyond  w^hat  it  de- 
serves. There  can  be  no  vital  and  permanent 
Christianity  which  does  not  include  its  doctrine  of 
the  future  life. 

Many  theologies  have  been  based  upon  the  ref- 
erences contained  in  the  Gospels  to  the  supernatural, 
and  to  the  life  beyond  the  grave.  With  these,  as 
was  stated  in  the  section  touching  upon  moral  free- 
dom, in  a  speculative  way,  we  have  nothing  to  do. 
The  religion  of  Christ  does  not  theorize  in  regard 
to  the  supernatural  at  all.  Yery  positive  assertion 
is  made  concerning  it,  but  there  is  no  attempt  at 
any  specific  explanation.  Paul  very  wisely  left 
the  third  heaven  wrapped  in  mystery.  The  folly 
of  attempting  to  explain  the  inexplicable  was  very 
apparent,  not  only  to  Christ,  but  also  to  His  closest 
followers.  But  although  unexplained,  the  idea  of 
a  belief  in  the  supernatural  is  vital  to  the  Christian 
religion.  Take  this  away,  and  Christ  sinks  at  once 
to  the  level  of  Plato  or  Socrates,  or  Zeno  or  Con- 
fucius. But  were  He  no  greater  than  these.  He 
could  not  have  built  the  mighty  fabric  of  modern 
Christendom.     The  miracle  of  Christianity  without 


84  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

the  miraculous  is  greater  by  far  than  any  miracle 
it  contains.  The  differentiating  quality  of  aU  re- 
ligion  is  indeed  its  belief  in  the  supernatural  A 
purely  naturalistic  religion  is  in  all  essential  re- 
spects a  contradiction  in  terms.  Naturalistic  ethics 
there  may  be,  as  well  as  naturalistic  metaphysics, 
and  naturalistic  science  of  every  kind ;  but  a  nat- 
m^alistic  religion  is  as  contradictory  a  phrase  as  the 
English  language  contains.  Eeligion  in  its  essence 
deals  with  this  life,  but  also  with  something  beyond. 
The  existence  of  a  Power  mightier  than  we  are, 
and  to  which  we  stand  in  some  way  related,  is  a 
fundamental  postulate  of  all  religions.  Religion, 
deprived  of  this  postulate,  becomes  either  a  species 
of  ethics  or  metaphysics,  in  accordance  with  the 
manner  in  which  the  practical  or  the  theoretical 
has  previously  predominated.  It  was  one  of  the 
greatest  merits  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  that  he 
clearly  saw  this  fundamental  characteristic  of  the 
religious  concept.  Mr.  Huxley,  too,  was  never 
more  completely  at  his  best  than  when  puncturing 
the  "  Religion  of  Humanity  "  as  fathered  by  Comte 
and  Frederic  Harrison.  No  attempt  at  formulat- 
ing a  religious  movement  was  in  fact  a  more  gro- 
tesque failure  than  Comte's  worship  of  the  *'  Grand 
Etre."  Positivism  as  a  religion  appealed  to  the 
human  race  far  less  than  Mormonism  or  Christian 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL    85 

Science,  or  even  the  Zionistic  movement  of  John 
Alexander  Dowie.  This  too,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  many  brilliant  men  and  women  lent  their  sup- 
port to  the  new  system  of  Comte.  But  Positivism 
did  away  with  the  supernatural,  and  in  so  doing, 
completely  gave  up  the  case  for  any  sort  of  real 
religion.  Comte's  system  contains  some  ethics,  and 
may  with  a  degree  of  caution  be  styled  a  meta- 
physic  ;  but  it  is  absurdly  incorrect  for  it  to  regard 
itself  as  a  religion.  There  can  be  no  real  religion 
without  a  supernatural  content,  and  when  that  con- 
tent is  eliminated,  such  religion  as  there  was  dies 
with  it.  The  Polynesian  who  worships  idols,  and  the 
Chinaman  who  burns  joss  have  yet  in  a  crude  way 
some  sort  of  religion  ;  but  the  most  refined  Positiv- 
istic  Society  in  the  world,  however  superior  in 
ethics  and  culture,  has  none. 

We  would  not  for  a  moment  detract  from  the 
value  of  whatever  contribution  the  followers  of 
Comte,  or  others,  have  made  to  the  world's  better- 
ment. We  would  not,  either,  attack  or  fail  to  give 
credit  to  the  man  who  acknowledges  the  content 
of  Christ's  message  as  regards  the  here  and  now, 
but  refuses  to  go  any  farther.  Much  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Christian  religion  is  purely  ethical, 
and  the  man  who  accepts  the  Christian  ethic  with- 
out accepting  anything  else  can  hardly  fail  to  re- 


86  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

ceive  some  benefit  thereby.  All  that  we  care  to 
emphasize  at  this  point  is  that  Christ's  ethics,  while 
included  in  His  religion,  does  not  by  any  means  ex- 
haust it.  The  Christian  religion  is  essentially 
based  upon  a  belief  in  the  supernatural,  not  only 
because  it  is  Christian,  but  also  because  it  is  a  re- 
ligion. Had  Christ  spoken  no  word  concerning 
the  future,  the  consoling  power  of  the  Christian 
symbols  would  have  been  swept  away,  and  that 
halo  of  light  which  Christianity  has  thrown  around 
the  grave  would  have  been  entirely  dissipated. 
The  consoling  and  comforting  features  of  the  relig- 
ion of  the  Nazarene  have  been  among  the  greatest 
blessings  it  has  conferred  upon  the  human  race. 
If  the  physician  who  discovers  a  great  anaesthetic, 
which  relieves  bodily  suffering,  or  the  surgeon  who 
finds  some  new  means  for  the  perfecting  of  his  art, 
deserves  the  plaudits  of  humanity,  assuredly  a 
religion  which  has  soothed  the  mental  anguish  of 
millions  and  which  provides  the  only  effective  balm 
in  the  most  extreme  cases  of  despair  and  suffering, 
is  worthy  of  consideration  and  respect. 

The  supernatural  is  obviously  a  difficult  subject 
to  discuss.  We  are  fully  aware  that  the  very  title 
opens  the  way  to  all  sorts  of  mental  vagaries, 
and  that  it  covers  the  most  fantastic  absurdities. 
Where  science   no  longer  treads,   there  is   great 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL    87 

opportunity  for  the  imagination  to  play.  But  our 
human  life,  as  we  have  seen,  is  hemmed  in  by  the 
supernatural ;  and  the  existence  and  reality  of  the 
latter  are  even  more  patent  than  those  of  the 
natural  itself.  Mr.  Spencer  recognized  this  in  his 
assertion  of  the  reality  of  the  Unknowable,  though 
he  fell  short  of  any  proper  appreciation  of  the 
nexus  between  what  he  styled  the  Unknowable  and 
the  Knowable.  The  natural  is  indeed  only  a  part 
of  the  supernatural,  and  the  two  are  concentric 
circles  rather  than  separate  spheres.  More  and 
more  of  the  supernatural  is  being  conquered  as  the 
world  marches  on ;  and  were  not  the  conquest  an 
infinite  task,  we  should  say  that  at  some  time  it 
will  all  be  conquered,  and  the  two  circles  coincide. 
God,  the  supreme  reality,  is,  however,  infinite,  and 
so  the  realization  of  Him  becomes  the  infinite 
problem  of  the  good  life.  Ever  our  horizon 
broadens,  ever  w^e  come  to  know  more  of  Him, 
ever  the  known  pushes  on  into  the  unknown,  ever 
we  voyage  on  into  those  "  strange  seas  of  thought  " 
which  Wordsworth  mentioned  in  his  characteriza- 
tion of  Newton. 

Thus  it  becomes  us  to  realize  that  relation  with 
the  infinite  which  is  our  divine  inheritance,  and 
which  alone  constitutes  us  men.  Because  the 
Teacher  of  Galilee  recognized  as  no  other  authority 


88  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

the  supreme  reality  of  the  spnitual  life,  because 
He  saw  the  glory  of  the  ideal  and  gave  it  the  fore- 
most place  in  His  thought  and  conduct,  because  He 
taught  as  no  other  ever  taught  the  true  relationship 
of  the  human  and  the  di\ane,  therefore,  the  religion 
of  Christ  has  won  that  high  position  which  it  oc- 
cupies in  the  thought  and  the  affections  of  the 
world.  Amid  the  shifting  scenes  of  our  material 
existence,  He  stands  aloft  with  His  calm  brow  and 
the  surging  tide  of  the  infinite  welling  up  through 
His  words,  proclaiming  to  all  the  world,  in  the 
message  of  one  of  His  later  disciples, 

*'  Earth  changes,  but  thy  soul  and  God  stand  sure.'^ 


THE  ]^ATUEE  AND  CRITEEIA  OF  MIEACLES 

THEEE  are  at  least  six  different  Greek 
words  used  to  conv^ey  the  idea  of  miracle 
in  the  New  Testament.  These  words 
simply  look  at  different  aspects  of  the  same  thing. 
At  one  time,  a  miracle  is  a  "  glorious,"  at  another 
a  "  strange,"  at  still  another  a  "  wonderful  "  thing. 
John  uses  almost  exclusively  the  word  correctly 
rendered  in  our  American  Ke vised  text  as  "  sign." 
In  their  essence,  miracles  were  signs  of  God's 
power,  and  credentials  of  Christ's  mission.  Jesus 
Christ  did  not  heal  the  sick  simply  to  help  them 
physically,  nor  did  He  raise  the  dead  in  order  to 
give  them  a  new  lease  on  material  existence.  It 
was  necessary  that,  coming  as  He  did.  He  should 
have  such  credentials  as  would  establish  His  posi- 
tion, and  display  such  power  as  would  fully  accredit 
His  claims.  Hence  the  necessity  for  miracles,  and 
hence  their  presence  in  the  text.  No  better  defini- 
tion of  a  miracle  has  been  given  than  that  of  Bishop 

Warren :   ''A  miracle  is  an  effect  in  nature  not  at- 

89 


90  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

tributable  to  any  of  the  recognized  operations  of 
nature,  nor  to  the  act  of  man,  but  indicative  of 
superhuman  power,  and  serving  as  a  sign  thereof." 
Miracles  were  very  necessary  as  "  signs  "  during 
Christ's  presence  upon  earth  and  during  the  early 
history  of  the  Church,  but  they  are  no  longer 
needed  for  that  purpose.  Christianity  has  so  justi- 
fied itself  during  two  thousand  years  of  history 
that  it  requires  no  farther  credentials.  Miracles, 
indeed,  present  a  decidedly  lower  order  of  evidence 
than  examples  such  as  are  found,  for  instance,  in  a 
book  like  Harold  Begbie's  "  Twice  Born  Men."  But 
because  we  do  not  need  the  testimony  of  the  miracu- 
lous now  is  no  reason  for  our  attacking  and  sneering 
at  it.  When  a  child  reaches  Latin  or  Greek,  he  does 
not  despise  his  alphabet  or  his  first  English  reader. 
He  no  longer  needs  them,  but  without  them  he 
would  not  be  where  he  is.  So  with  the  question 
of  miracles.  The  Church  no  longer  needs  them  ;  it 
has  outgrown  any  necessity  for  an  appeal  to  them 
as  evidence ;  but  we  should  not  forget  that  there 
was  a  time  when  without  them  there  would  have 
been  no  Church,  and  that  the  whole  magnificent 
fabric  of  Christianity  could  not  have  been  built 
originally  without  some  such  credentials.  The 
conceited  man  may  decry  and  look  down  upon  the 
stages  by  which  he  reached  his  position  of  promi- 


MIRACLES  91 

nence,  but  the  profound  and  reverent  man  will  have 
only  respect  for  the  first  steps  in  his  progress  up- 
ward. To  make  fun  of  miracles  is  cheap  and  easy, 
but  it  is  no  indication  of  either  wisdom  or  pro- 
fundity. 

If  we  grant  the  possibility  of  miracles,  as  based 
upon  superhuman  power,  and  the  necessity  for  them 
as  credentials  of  such  power,  we  do  not  by  this  ad- 
mission open  the  gate  for  the  entrance  of  every  sort 
of  credulous  imposture.  That  there  are  true  bank- 
notes in  existence  does  not  imply  that  there  are  no 
false  ones,  and  that  such  a  thing  as  a  miracle  actu- 
ally took  place  once  does  not  imply  that  it  took 
place  at  a  dozen  other  times.  After  granting  the 
possibility  and  even  the  necessity  for  miracles  as 
evidences  of  divine  power,  we  do  not  in  the  slight- 
est degree  remove  the  need  for  the  most  careful 
scrutiny  in  regard  to  specific  cases  of  their  mani- 
festation. It  is  readily  admitted  that  the  evidence 
here  must  be  of  the  most  thoroughgoing  character. 
Credulity  probably  does,  on  the  whole,  at  least  as 
much  harm  as  skepticism.  The  man  who  can  ac- 
cept all  of  the  marvels  recorded  of  the  mediaeval 
saints  is  as  much  damage  to  society  as  the  man  who 
refuses  to  believe  in  miracles  at  all.  As  between 
the  positions  of  Newman  and  Huxley,  there  are 
small  odds  for  choice. 


92  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

The  whole  question  of  miracle,  like  the  question 
of  Christianity  itself,  rests  upon  an  appeal  to 
reason  and  truth.  God  forbid  that  the  time 
should  ever  come  when  reason  shall  abdicate  her 
throne  as  she  has  upon  occasions  in  the  past,  at 
the  dictation  of  any  so-called  religion  !  Miracles 
are  rational  evidences  of  God's  power ;  they  have 
been  needed,  and  they  have  taken  place.  To  deny 
their  possibility  is  to  say  that  the  Creator  of  the 
world  is  subjugated  by  His  own  creation ;  to  deny 
their  necessity  is  to  assert  that  the  whole  fabric  of 
Christianity  is  absurd ;  while  to  dispute  their  hav- 
ing occurred  is  to  give  the  lie  to  the  most  unim- 
peachable historic  testimony.  Conceding  the  possi- 
bility of  miracle,  let  us  hear  the  evidence  impartially 
and  accept  no  given  instance  of  miraculous  mani- 
festation without  such  testimony  that  only  a  jury 
prejudged  in  the  case  could  decide  against  its  occur- 
rence. Steering  between  the  Charybdis  of  credulity 
and  the  Scylla  of  skepticism,  let  us  hold  firm  to  the 
anchor  of  a  true  faith,  grounded  both  in  reason  and 
love. 

Modern  scientists  have  at  times  attacked  the 
theory  of  miracle  ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that, 
from  a  purely  materialistic  point  of  view,  a  miracle 
is  an  impossibility.  But  the  purely  materialistic 
point  of  view  does  away  quite  as  eifectually  with 


MIRACLES  98 

God  as  it  does  with  miracle.  We  have  no  idea 
whatever,  as  previously  stated,  of  trenching  upon 
metaphysics  in  our  study ;  but  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  some  metaphysics  the  Christian  must 
have,  and  that  the  purely  naturalistic  metaphysic 
will  not  square  for  a  moment  with  the  teachings  of 
Christ.  The  religion  of  Christ,  therefore,  can  never 
be  a  materialistic  religion,  if  we  may  be  permitted 
to  use  such  an  expression,  but  always  a  spiritualistic 
or  idealistic  one.  Materialism  was,  in  fact,  the 
point  of  view  which  the  Nazarene  attacked  most 
vigorously.  The  world,  meaning  thereby  the 
materialistic  concept  of  life,  the  life  of  eating  and 
drinking  and  sensual  appetite,  was  His  constant 
antithesis  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  His  last 
superb  farewell  to  His  followers,  He  elaborated 
this  antithesis  in  the  words  so  frequently  quoted : 
*'  They  are  not  of  the  world  even  as  I  am  not  of  the 
world."  His  prayer  for  them  was  not  that  they 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  world,  but  that  they 
should  be  kept  from  the  evil  which  it  contains. 
The  Apostle  Paul  draws  the  distinction  very 
beautifully  in  his  well-known  definition  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  :  "  For  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  not  meat  and  drink ;  but  righteousness,  and 
peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  The  powers  of 
evil,  to  Christ,  were  embodied  almost,  if  not  en- 


94  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

tirely,  in  the  fleshly  appetites.  His  constant  teach- 
ing was  that  the  goal  of  the  higher  life  could  be 
won  only  by  crucifying  the  lower  in  the  interest  of 
the  higher,  and  that  the  path  to  virtue  lay  along 
the  line  of  sacrifice  and  self-denial.  Out  of  the 
material  to  fashion  the  ideal,  out  of  the  human  to 
bring  forth  the  divine,  out  of  nature  to  realize 
nature's  God — these  were  the  ideas  which  con- 
stantly occupied  His  attention.  For  the  purely 
animal  life,  He  had  only  the  supremest  contempt. 
His  idea  of  that  life  was  embodied  in  His  parable 
of  the  rich  fool,  as  well  as  His  picture  of  Dives  in 
the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus. 

This  point  of  view  is  coming  to  be  recognized 
more  and  more  as  the  true  one  by  the  scientists 
and  investigators  of  our  own  time.  The  biologist, 
no  less  than  the  theologian,  sees  in  the  brute  side  of 
our  human  nature  the  incarnation  of  that  evil 
which  constantly  bars  the  progress  of  good.  He 
sees  that  there  can  be  no  upward  movement  in 
society  or  morals  which  does  not  presuppose  the 
crushing  out  of  the  "  ape  and  the  tiger  "  in  our  dis- 
positions and  appetites.  That  world  which  Christ 
opposed  and  stigmatized  has  likewise  received  his 
censure  and  disapproval.  He,  no  less  than  Paul, 
realizes  that  to  be  carnally  minded  is  death,  and 
that  the  material  appetites  and  the  material  goal 


MIRACLES  96 

are  the  chief  hindrances  to  progress  in  the  moral 
universe. 

The  spiritualistic  concept  of  the  world,  that 
concept  which  finds  a  place  for  God  and  the 
spiritual  life,  which  opens  to  the  soul  a  vista  of  its 
own  splendid  possibilities,  which  raises  man  from  a 
helpless  clod  of  earth  to  a  seat  at  the  table  of  the 
immortals — this  is  the  postulate  of  a  true  science 
as  fully  as  it  is  the  postulate  of  a  true  religion. 
Without  it,  life  is  barren,  negative  and  full  of 
despair.  Without  it,  conscience  is  a  cheat  and 
existence  itself  a  delusion  and  a  mockery.  With- 
out it,  man's  outlook  shrivels  and  dwarfs  and  nar- 
rows into  nothingness  at  last.  With  it,  on  the 
contrary,  there  is  a  new  and  splendid  horizon 
opened  for  the  humblest  citizen  of  earth,  an  in- 
heritance which  is  unfading  and  eternal,  for  the 
sake  of  which  all  of  the  blots  and  blurs  of  our 
human  history  become  abundantly  worth  while. 
We  who  accept  this  concept  may  well  say  with 
Eabbi  Ben  Ezra : 

*^  Eejoice  we  are  allied 
To  Tliat  which  doth  provide 
And  not  partake,  effect  and  not  receive  I 
A  spark  disturbs  onr  clod  ; 
Nearer  we  hold  of  God 
Who  gives,  than  of  His  tribes  that  take,  I 
must  believe.'' 


96  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

To  believe  in  miracle,  one  must  believe  in  God. 
To  believe  in  God,  one  must  believe  in  a  spiritual 
universe.  The  man  who  deities  matter  and  accepts 
no  ultimate  beyond  the  range  of  our  human  life  and 
experience,  cannot  of  course  believe  that  Christ 
healed  the  sick  or  raised  Lazarus  from  the  dead. 
But  the  man  who  believes  in  God,  that  He  is  a 
rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  after  Him, 
will  be  willing  to  believe,  upon  sufficient  evidence, 
that  death  is  no  barrier  to  the  King  of  kings ;  and 
that  nature  herself  obeys  the  voice  of  nature's  God. 
This  is  all  that  a  proper  doctrine  of  miracle  implies, 
and  surely  this  is  neither  irrational  nor  inconsistent 
with  such  an  interpretation  of  the  universe  as  is 
both  scientific  and  sufficient.  A  true  science  is 
forever  one  with  a  true  philosophy  and  a  true 
religion. 


THE  MOEAL  VALUE  OF  CHEIST'S  CON- 

TEIBUTION  TO  THE  BELIEF 

IN  A  FUTUEE  LIFE 

AS  man  progresses  in  intelligence,  his  interest 
in  the  future  becomes  more  intense.  Pre- 
sumably the  lower  animals  concern  them- 
selves with  little  beyond  the  immediate  present. 
It  is  true  that  certain  of  the  less  highly  developed 
forms  of  life  possess  instincts  which  cause  them  to 
provide  for  the  future — the  ant,  as  an  example, 
lays  by  its  store  for  the  winter,  as  does  the  bee, 
and  many  other  and  less  highly  developed  organ- 
isms. That  there  is  any  conscious  knowledge  of 
the  purpose  of  these  instincts  on  the  part  of  the 
animals  possessing  them  is  exceedingly  doubtful. 
It  is  certainly  true  that  at  the  very  farthest  any 
idea  of  the  future  is  limited  to  a  future  in  time. 
Only  man  forms  the  concept  of  an  eternal  here- 
after. The  progress  of  civilization  may  be  very 
accurately  measured  by  observing  the  influence 
which  a  belief  in  the  future  life  has  had  upon  the 
world.     The  deterrent  value   of  such  a  belief  is 

97 


98  VITAL  CHMSTIANITY 

great,  but  its  stimulative  value  is  still  greater.  It 
cannot  help  ennobling  a  man  for  him  to  believe 
that  he  is  the  bearer  of  an  eternal  destiny.  A^ictor 
Hugo  has  indeed  advocated  the  somewhat  fantastic 
idea  of  the  creation  of  immortality.  According  to 
this  view,  man  by  his  own  will  determines  whether 
he  shall  live  hereafter  or  not.  The  man  who  has 
no  faith  will  be  rewarded  for  his  lack  of  faith  by 
having  his  name  stricken  out  of  the  goodly  circle 
of  the  Immortals,  while  the  man  who  desires 
and  believes  in  a  future  life  will  have  it  as  his 
reward. 

There  have  been  some  great  men  who  have  not  be- 
lieved in  a  future  life,  but  they  are  decidedly  in  the 
minority.  The  profoundest  philosophers — Plato, 
Socrates,  Kant,  Hegel,  Berkeley,  Locke ;  the  fore- 
most poets — Homer,  Yergil,  Dante,  Milton,  Shake- 
speare, Wordsworth,  Tennyson,  Browning ;  the 
best-known  scientists — Bacon,  Newton,  Galileo, 
Kepler;  the  greatest  statesmen — Burke,  Pitt, 
Washington,  Lincoln,  Cromwell,  and  others  en- 
tirely too  numerous  to  mention,  believed  in  a 
future  life.  The  moral  influence  of  a  belief  in 
personal  immortality  cannot  help  being  prodigious. 
Some  highly  imaginative  souls,  like  George  Eliot, 
may  wax  enthusiastic  over  the  immortality  of 
fame ;    but  there  is  a   touch  of  gloom  in  even 


BELIEF  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE  99 

their  enthusiasm.  There  can  be  no  true  optimism 
without  a  genuine  belief  in  a  direct  personal  here- 
after. 

The  deterrent  value  of  belief  in  a  future  life  has 
been  given  due  attention  at  the  hands  of  economists 
and  philosophers.  That  such  a  belief  lessens  crime 
and  encourages  virtue  will  hardly  admit  of  dispute. 
Humanity  at  large  is  not  made  up  of  metaphysi- 
cians or  scientists,  and  the  positivistic  experiment 
ought  to  show  the  futility  of  trying  to  better  con- 
ditions by  an  appeal  to  a  "  social  future  "  alone. 
Deeply  rooted  in  every  individual  is  the  desire  for 
personal  existence ;  and  the  consciousness  that  the 
future  of  that  existence  is  dependent  upon  the 
present  gives  a  serious  coloring  to  life,  a  coloring 
which  nothing  else  can  give.  "We  would  not  for  a 
moment  underestimate  the  value  of  the  altruistic 
spirit  as  applied  to  the  future,  nor  would  we  advo- 
cate an  egoism  which  is  not  in  its  very  essence 
altruistic,  even  for  the  individual ;  but  we  do  assert 
that  such  an  egoism  is  back  of  all  true  altruism, 
and  that  to  serve  others  and  destroy  one's  self  is 
surely  not  the  end  of  life.  If  this  were  true,  just 
at  the  moment  when  the  soul  becomes  most  valu- 
able it  would  be  lost,  and  nature  would  constantly 
cheat  herself  as  regards  moral  values.  Christ 
realized  fully  the  sobering  significance  of  a  firm 


too  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

belief  in  the  future  life.  "  What  shall  it  profit  a 
man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?  "  is  the  question  which  has  sounded  in  the 
ears  of  many  a  would-be  criminal  and  caused  the 
sober  second  thought  which  closed  the  gates  of 
crime.  The  world  is  a  more  decent  place  in  which 
to  live  because  people  generally  have  some  sort  of 
faith  in  a  future  life.  Let  that  faith  be  seriously 
shaken,  and  our  criminal  population  will  largely 
increase.  The  jail,  the  penitentiary  and  the  gal- 
lows are  of  far  less  deterrent  value  than  the  belief 
in  a  future  accounting  before  a  Judge  of  infinite 
knowledge  and  unimpeachable  justice.  The  con- 
versation between  the  two  murderers  of  Clarence 
in  Shakespeare's  ''  Richard  III  "  is  a  fine  testimony 
to  the  deterrent  value  of  religious  and  moral  con- 
siderations, even  in  the  case  of  the  most  hardened 
criminal. 

But  the  deterrent  value  of  a  belief  in  personal 
immortality  is,  as  already  stated,  of  less  signifi- 
cance than  its  stimulative  function.  The  great 
utility  of  the  former  applies  only  to  the  bad,  but 
the  value  of  the  latter  appertains  to  the  good. 
Browning  has  well  expressed  what  this  belief 
meant  in  the  dawning  of  the  Christian  art  of  the 
Renaissance : 


BELIEF  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE         101 

^^  Is  it  true  that  we  are  now,  and  shall  be  here- 
after, 
But  what  and  where  depend  on  life's  minute? 
Hails  heavenly  cheer  or  infernal  laughter 

Our  first  step  out  of  the  gulf  or  in  it  ? 
Shall  man,  such  step  within  his  endeavor, 

Man's  face,  have  no  more  play  and  action 
Than  joy  which  is  crystallized  forever, 
Or  grief,  an  eternal  petrifaction  ?  " 


The  significance  of  life  when  seen  under  the  "  form 
of  eternity  "  is  indeed  tremendous.  Such  a  point 
of  view  is  vitally  essential  to  any  true  optimism. 
Our  material  existence  is  so  brief  and  uncertain 
that  the  Cyrenaic  gospel  of  *'  Eat,  drink  and  be 
merry,"  with  its  attendant  explanation,  "for  to- 
morrow we  die,"  becomes  the  only  word  of 
wisdom.  But  Cyrenaicism  has  never  maintained 
any  serious  hold  upon  the  leaders  of  thought  or 
action  in  the  world.  The  significant  things  which 
have  been  accomplished  have  been  achieved  by 
reason  of  a  belief  in  the  permanent  existence  of 
the  soul.  No  man  cares  much  for  the  transient ; 
what  interest  it  really  evokes  is  due  to  a  sort  of 
illusionary  permanence  which,  for  the  moment,  is 
attached  to  it.  The  point  of  view  of  the  "  Gram- 
marian" is  always  the  legitimate  one  for  great 
achievement : 


102  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

'^Others  mistrust  and  say,  '  But  time  escapes  ! 
Live  now  or  never  ! ' 
He  said,   '  What's  time  ?  leave  Now  for  dogs 
and  apes  ! 

Man  has  Forever.'  " 


And  when  man  believes  he  has  Forever,  and  that  it 
depends  largely  upon  the  Here  and  'Now  as  to 
what  that  Forever  shall  be,  he  is  the  more  apt  to 
give  attention  to  how  he  comports  himself  in  the 
present  stage  of  his  existence. 

The  chief  value  of  Christ's  contribution  to  the 
world's  faith  in  personal  immortality,  however,  was 
not  in  His  teaching,  or  in  His  philosophy,  but  in 
the  supreme  fact  of  His  resurrection.  Argument 
the  world  had  had  before  in  abundance.  Plato 
and  Socrates  had  furnished  large  contributions  to 
the  argumentative  phase  of  the  question,  but  what 
humanity  needed  was  not  argument  but  demonstra- 
tion, not  theory  but  proof.  Socrates  had  said  the 
soul  ought  to  endure,  but  Jesus  Christ  proved  that 
man  not  only  ought  to  have  but  actually  has  an 
immortal  heritage.  And  so  the  Resurrection  has 
influenced  more  people  to  believe  in  a  future  life 
than  any  other  single  motive  in  all  history.  The 
Apostolic  argument,  *'  Because  He  rose  from  the 
dead  we  also  shall  rise,"  is  thoroughly  pertinent. 
People  will  believe  in  a  future  life  if  they  are  as- 


BELIEF  IN  A  FUTUKE  LIFE        103 

sured  that  one  man  actually  and  positively  entered 
upon  it,  when  they  will  not  believe  in  it  by  reason 
of  any  philosophical  or  logical  process  whatever. 
Thought  and  fact  are  two  different  things,  and  the 
"  ought  to  be  "  does  not  always  coincide  with  the 
"  is."  It  was  this  preaching  of  fact  rather  than 
theory  which  first  won  Christianity  its  place  in  the 
hearts  of  men.  The  world  was  surfeited  upon 
theory  ;  the  Greeks  had  spun  it  out  to  an  endless 
length,  and  Paul's  words  were  literally  true  :  ^'  For 
after  that  in  the  wisdom  of  God  the  world  by  wis- 
dom knew  not  God,  it  pleased  God  by  the  foolish- 
ness of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe."  The 
"  foolishness  of  preaching  "  appealed  to  men  every- 
where because  it  dealt  with  facts  and  not  philoso- 
phies, with  deeds  and  not  simply  with  high-flown 
speculations. 

The  Resurrection  of  Jesus  (^hrist  may  well  be 
styled  the  crux  of  Christianity.  Paul,  who  was 
the  most  brilliant  interpreter  the  new  religion  ever 
had,  recognized  this  very  fully,  and  by  reason  of 
this  recognition,  wrote  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
First  Corinthians.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  there  can  be  no  Christian  religion  without 
faith  in  the  Resurrection.  There  may  be  Christian 
morality,  and  Christian  living,  but  no  Christian  re- 
ligion.     Eliminate    the  Resurrection,   and  Christ 


104  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

takes  His  place,  as  already  noted,  with  Plato, 
Socrates  and  Zeno,  as  a  great  teacher,  but  as 
nothing  more.  The  historical  phenomena  presented 
by  Christianity  thus  become  inexplicable.  The 
evidence  in  support  of  the  Resurrection  is  the 
strongest  adduced  for  any  of  Christ's  miracles,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  explain  it  away  without  doing 
such  violence  to  the  gospel  historians  as  to  make 
their  record  practically  worthless.  Paul's  question 
to  King  Agrippa  seems  pertinent,  when  such  at- 
tempts are  made :  "  Why  is  it  judged  incredible 
with  you  if  God  doth  raise  the  dead  ?  "  To  those 
who  believe  in  God,  and  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  as 
Lord  and  King,  for  the  Lord  of  life  not  to  conquer 
death  would  be  the  incredible  thing.  Interpreta- 
tions of  the  Resurrection  are,  of  course,  more  or 
less  varied.  The  vital  thing  is  that  Christ  lived 
again  in  conscious  personal  existence  after  physical 
death,  and  that  because  He  lived  He  still  lives,  and 
because  He  lives  His  followers  know  that  they  shall 
live.  Questions  in  regard  to  the  resurrected  body 
are  speculative,  and  for  the  most  part  profitless. 
The  important  point  is  not  the  "  what "  but  the 
"that."  "Christ  conquered  death  "  is  all  we  need 
to  know  ;  just  Tiow  He  conquered  it  may  remain  for 
future  settlement.  The  trend  of  modern  science, 
properly  interpreted,  is  not  against  such  a  future 


BELIEF  IN  A  FUTURE  LIFE         105 

existence  as  the  Resurrection  asserts,  but  in  favor 
of  it.  While  the  Resurrection  must  always  remain 
to  a  certain  extent  in  the  realm  of  faith  rather  than 
in  the  realm  of  exact  science,  its  scientific  basis 
becomes  the  stronger  as  the  years  pass  on. 


^*  My  own  dim  life  should  teach  me  this, 
That  life  shall  live  forevermore, 
Else  earth  is  darkness  at  the  core, 
And  dust  and  ashes  all  that  is.'' 


(c)  Epilogue 

YII 

MODERN  PEOGEESS  AND  VITAL  CHEIS- 
TIANITY 

"  T  S  Christianity  declining  ?  "  is  the  old  question 
I  of  skeptics  and  scoffers,  and  will  presuma- 
bly  be  asked  until  the  whole  world  becomes 
Christianized  at  the  time  of  the  Millennial  Dawn. 
From  the  statistical  point  of  view  there  can  be  but 
one  answer.  Christianity  is  gaining  on  all  the 
other  religious  beliefs  at  an  ever  increasing  rate. 
The  question  of  the  status  of  vital  Christianity  is  a 
different  problem,  however,  and  one  which  statistics 
will  not  settle.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
civilized  world  was  nominally  Christian,  and  at 
that  very  time  vital  Christianity  reached  its  lowest 
ebb.  Measured  not  by  statistics  but  by  feeling  the 
pulse  of  the  age,  we  reach  none  the  less  the  same 
conclusion.  Surely  and  more  surely  Christ's  great 
ideals  of  righteousness,  service  and  freedom  are 
being  realized  in  the  world.  Men  are  becoming 
better ;  politics  is  cleaner ;  the  world  is  getting  to 
be  a  more  comfortable  place  in  which  to  live. 
There  are  more  good  Samaritans  in  existence  to- 

106 


PROGRESS  AND  CHRISTIANITY      107 

day  than  ever  before.  No  such  awful  barbarities 
as  death  by  crucifixion,  or  the  inhuman  and  revolt- 
ing tortures  which  w^ere  every-day  affau-s  when 
Christ  lived,  would  be  even  dreamed  of  now.  We 
have  much  yet  to  accomplish,  but  we  are  progress- 
ing with  giant  strides.  Nor  does  the  age  show  any 
perceptible  tendency  towards  a  disbelief  in  the 
supernatural  element  of  Christianity.  In  every 
generation  there  are  those  who  refuse  to  believe 
in  a  future  life,  or  in  any  realm  outside  of  the 
material ;  but  they  are,  so  far  as  external  evidence 
goes,  less  numerous  to-day  than  at  any  other  time 
in  the  history  of  civilization.  The  Resurrected 
Christ,  no  less  than  the  Teaching  Christ,  holds  His 
throne  as  He  has  held  it  in  the  past.  As  man 
develops,  he  must  develop  towards,  rather  than 
away  from,  the  Infinite  ;  and  he  will  therefore 
never  lose  faith  in  the  supernatural.  This  which  is 
the  teaching  of  logic  and  philosophy  has  likewise 
been  borne  out  in  the  actual  records  of  history  and 
the  story  of  the  lives  of  men. 

One  of  the  striking  evidences  of  the  progress  of 
vital  Christianity  is  the  world-wide  extension  of 
the  Peace  Movement  during  the  present  century. 
That  the  nations  are  slowly  but  surely  moving 
towards  that  day  foreshadowed  in  Tennyson's 
vision,  w^hen 


108  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

**  The  war  drum  throbb'd  no  longer,  and  the  battle- 
flags  were  furl'd 
In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the 
world," 


there  can  be  no  question.  The  establishment  of 
the  Peace  Tribunal  at  the  Hague,  the  settlement  of 
so  many  recent  international  disputes  by  arbitra- 
tion, the  ever-increasing  sentiment  in  favor  of  the 
disarmament  of  nations — these  things  all  show  con- 
clusively the  coming  reign  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
The  ground  of  the  Peace  Movement  is  fundamentally 
the  ideal  of  service.  Men  who  desire  to  serve  their 
fellow  men  will  not  cut  each  other's  throats.  Even 
those  Christians  who  do  not  hold  to  the  doctrine  of 
non-resistance  in  its  extreme  form  yet  recognize  its 
prevailing  tendency.  The  religion  of  Mohammed 
has  no  more  certainly  relied  upon  war  as  a  means 
of  extending  its  borders  than  has  the  religion  of 
Christ  upon  peace.  The  Avhole  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity is  opposed  to  strife,  and  w^hile  it  is  true  that 
certain  churches  and  churchmen  in  the  past  have 
encouraged  war,  they  have  not  in  so  doing  helped 
to  realize  the  ideals  of  their  Master.  When  Christ 
came  into  the  world,  war  was  the  normal  and 
usual  condition  of  a  nation,  and  peace  existed  only 
when  the  people  were  so  exhausted  that  they 
could  no  longer  struggle  for  supremacy.     To  lose 


PROGRESS  AND  CHRISTIANITY      109 

all  of  one's  property  in  a  single  night,  to  be  robbed 
of  children  and  home,  to  be  enslaved  or  subjected 
to  awful  physical  and  mental  torture,  were 
things  which  any  man,  no  matter  how  prominent 
or  virtuous,  might  constantly  expect  as  a  result  of 
war.  The  security  of  individual  property  and  the 
reign  of  international  justice  have  come  about  in 
consequence  of  the  dethronement  of  Mars,  and  the 
enthronement  of  the  Christ  of  Galilee. 

Another  evidence  of  the  growing  power  of  vital 
Christianity  is  the  increased  interest  in  benevolence 
among  wealthy  men  of  the  modern  Avorld.  Some 
of  our  great  financiers  and  business  men  are  still 
selfish  at  heart,  but  we  are  constrained  to  believe 
that  this  is  not  true  of  most  of  them.  The  richest 
men  of  the  modern  age  are  bending  all  of  their 
energies  to  solve  the  problem  of  how  they  may  best 
use  their  wealth  to  serve  the  world.  A  rich  man 
who  does  not  give  extensively  of  his  wealth  is  rare 
and  becoming  still  rarer.  Some  of  the  scions  of 
wealthy  houses  in  America  are  socialists,  and 
strong  sympathizers  with  the  proletariat  element. 
Among  the  monied  men  of  modern  times  there  is 
coming  to  be  more  and  more  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  they,  like  the  Great  Teacher,  are  to  be- 
come the  servants  of  all.  The  foremost  retail  mer- 
chant of  our  day  is  as  notable  for  his  interest  in 


110  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

the  work  of  the  Sunday-school  as  he  is  for  his  busi- 
ness sagacity  and  success.  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
the  modern  industrial  system  is  but  a  transposition 
of  the  ancient  feudal  regime,  but  it  is  certainly  true 
that  there  is  a  temper  about  the  modern  baron 
which  is  very  different  from  that  of  his  ancestor  of 
the  olden  tune.  In  the  older  age  there  were  many 
cases  of  individual  charity ;  and  much  emphasis, 
most  of  it,  however,  after  the  beginning  of  the 
modern  period,  derived  from  Christ,  was  laid  upon 
isolated  benevolence  ;  but  the  modern  spirit  is  one 
of  a  desire  for  general  amelioration,  and  has  in  it  a 
great  deal  more  of  the  element  of  sympathy.  The 
present-day  business  man  is  or  has  been,  as  a  rule, 
himself  a  laborer  ;  he  sympathizes  thoroughly  with 
the  men  under  him,  and  thinks  of  their  convenience 
and  comfort  perhaps  more  often  than  his  own. 
The  spirit  of  love  and  service  w^hich  is  the  spirit  of 
Christ  is  in  his  soul  and  is  manifest  in  his  Life. 
This  type  of  man  is  of  course  not  yet  universal,  but 
it  is  becoming  larger  and  larger  in  its  influence  and 
power  as  the  years  pass  on.  Its  presence  in  the 
world  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  extension  of  vital 
Christianity. 

Still  another  indication  of  the  progress  of  Christ's 
teaching  is  to  be  found  in  the  higher  moral  tone 
exhibited  by  political  leaders  of  the  present  gener- 


PROGRESS  AND  CHRISTIANITY      111 

ation.  Politics  is  still  far  from  what  it  should  be, 
but  it  is  immensely  better  to-day  than  at  any  pre- 
vious era  in  the  history  of  society.  Bribery  is  no 
longer  condoned,  and  while  isolated  examples  of 
corruption  are  to  be  found  in  certain  communities 
and  municipalities,  as  a  whole  the  nations  are  po- 
litically cleaner  than  at  any  time  in  the  past.  In 
the  United  States,  great  reform  movements,  led  in 
our  largest  state  by  the  son  of  a  Baptist  clergyman 
and  in  the  nation  at  large  by  a  Dutch  Reformed 
lay  preacher  and  a  Presbyterian  elder,  have  been 
the  striking  features  of  the  day.  These  men  are 
all  of  them  orthodox  Chiistians  of  the  highest  type ; 
they  are  also  men  of  unimpeachable  integrity  and 
moral  courage.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  have  the  destinies  of  its  citizens  been  in 
charge  of  men  representing  a  higher  type  of  re- 
ligion than  is  true  to-day.  Yital  Christianity  has, 
seemingly,  at  least,  captured  the  rulers  of  the 
world  ;  and  as  a  consequence  the  moral  tone  of  all 
nations  is  growing  constantly  better.  Occasional 
lapses  from  the  reform  movement  are  of  course  to 
be  found,  and  it  is  not  to  be  asserted  for  a  moment 
that  the  principles  of  the  Nazarene  constitute  the 
core  of  modern  politics  ;  but  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  these  principles  are  more  powerful  to-day  than 
at  any  previous  time  in  om*  history.     The  "  Era  of 


112  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

Good  Stealing  "  is  a  thing  of  the  past  in  the  United 
States ;  and  it  is  dangerous  to  be  dishonest,  even  in 
so  corrupt  a  political  municipality  as  that  of  the 
City  by  the  Golden  Gate.  Tweed  and  his  followers 
constituted  a  type  which  is  looked  upon  with  ab- 
horrence by  the  bulk  of  the  American  people,  and 
this  abhorrence  grows  as  the  years  pass  on.  Clean 
politics  is  surely  an  indication  of  the  presence  of 
vital  Christianity. 

Few  things  are  more  gratifying  in  the  onward 
march  of  decency  and  Christianity  than  the  disap- 
pearance of  cruelty  from  the  world.  The  darkest 
blot  upon  past  history  has  been  its  awful  disregard 
for  human  misery  and  suffering.  The  story  of  the 
legalized  means  of  execution  among  the  nations  is  a 
record  so  shocking  that  it  haunts  one  like  a  hideous 
nightmare.  When  one  thinks  that  for  hundreds  of 
years  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the  ancient 
world  habitually  punished  criminals  by  crucifixion, 
and  that  it  was  the  lot  of  thousands  and  thousands 
of  wretched  beings  to  agonize  for  days  in  this  way 
before  death  brought  relief,  he  can  scarcely  realize 
that  the  people  who  did  these  things  belonged  to 
the  same  race  with  himself.  The  records  of  the 
French  criminal  system  and  of  the  frightful  atroc- 
ities, which  were  perpetrated  in  the  prisons  of 
Paris  up  almost  to  the  Eevolution,  are  so  terrible 


PROGRESS  AND  CHRISTIANITY      113 

as  to  cause  the  strongest  and  most  hardened  nerves 
of  modern  times  to  quail  when  the  history  is  read. 
The  names  of  Damiens  and  Ravaillac  alone  recall 
enough.  One  can  scarcely  help  feeling  that  of  all 
the  demons  which  have  ruled  the  earth,  the  most 
inexcusable  and  awful  has  been  the  demon  of 
cruelty.  No  sin  was  more  thoroughly  denounced 
by  the  Christ  than  this.  His  spirit  was  the  spirit 
of  kindness,  and  the  very  idea  of  cruelty  was  for- 
eign to  Him.  Modern  nations  are  slowly  learning 
His  lesson.  The  gallows  has  been  abolished  as  an 
instrument  of  punishment  in  the  leading  and  more 
influential  American  states,  and  the  guillotine  is  but 
little  used  in  France.  Wherever  practiced  now, 
capital  punishment  is  meted  out  as  humanely  as 
possible,  and  there  is  no  effort  to  punish  the 
wretched  victim  with  additional  tortures.  The 
spirit  of  Him  Avho  died  by  the  awful  death  of  the 
cross  to  free  men  from  the  demon  of  cruelty  is 
abroad  everywhere  in  the  world  to-day. 

An  interesting  and  important  testimony  to  the 
growth  of  the  Christian  spirit  in  the  world  is  the 
modern  tendency  towards  toleration  of  religious 
differences,  and  the  desire  for  religious  unification. 
Among  the  Protestant  churches  the  universal  desire, 
now  that  individual  freedom  of  conscience  has  been 
secured,  is  for  a  united  Christendom.     The  ideal  of 


114  VITAL  CHRISTIANITY 

service  had  been  beautifully  illustrated  in  the  lives 
of  men  like  Francis  of  Assisi  and  thousands  of 
others  of  similar  temper,  long  before  the  days  of 
Protestantism.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  Reformation 
that  it  plead  for  the  last  great  ideal  of  Chiist,  the 
ideal  of  freedom.  But  since  freedom  has  been  se- 
cured, the  extreme  individualism  which  followed  in 
its  train  has  helped  to  thwart  the  triumphant  march 
of  the  religion  of  Christ.  Everywhere  to-day  there 
is  a  desire  for  Christians  of  every  creed  or  party  to 
join  hands  and  to  present  a  solid  front  against  the 
powers  of  evil.  Greater  toleration  in  regard  to 
opinions,  and  greater  breadth  of  sympathy  for  aB 
mankind,  are  the  prevailing  characteristics  of  pres- 
ent-day Christendom.  Great  movements  in  both 
the  social  and  the  religious  world  are  presaged  by 
this  undercurrent  of  sympathy  which  is  bearing  all 
of  Christ's  followers  more  and  more  towards  Christ. 
Baring-Gould's  storing  hymn  expresses  the  vision 
of  a  practically  unanimous  Christendom  : 

''  Like  a  mighty  army, 
Moves  the  Church  of  God  ; 
Brothers,  we  are  treading 
Where  the  saints  have  trod  ; 
We  are  not  divided, 
All  one  body  we, 
One  in  hope  and  doctrine, 
One  in  charity.'^ 


PART  III 
Formal  Christianity 


CEEED 

THE  question  of  formal  Christianity,  or  the 
organization  and  nature  of  the  Church  as 
an  institution,  involves  three  things :  first, 
the  subject  of  creed,  or  what  one  must  believe; 
second,  the  subject  of  ordinance,  or  what  one  must 
do ;  and  third,  the  subject  of  polity,  or  how  one 
must  be  governed.  These  three  items,  creed, 
ordinance  and  polity,  cover  practically  the  whole 
field  of  church  organization  and  relations. 

The  question  of  creed,  by  common  consent,  stands 
first  of  the  trinity,  both  in  time  and  importance. 
What  must  a  man  believe  in  order  to  belong  to  the 
Church  ?  is  a  problem  over  which  there  has  been 
endless  argument  and  which  has  caused  the  most 
wide-spread  dissension.  It  is  not  in  any  sense  our 
purpose  to  attempt  an  analysis  of  the  historic  creeds 
of  Christendom  ;  still  less  is  it  our  purpose  to  attempt 
the  defense  of  any  particular  one  of  them.  Cer- 
tainly the  Church  as  originally  established  must 
have  had  some  creed.  We  find,  for  example,  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  a  number  of  instances  of 
conversion  to  Christianity.     The  people  who  were 

117 


118  FOKMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

thus  converted  must  have  professed  some  belief 
before  their  admission  to  the  Church.  If,  therefore, 
we  discover  the  standard  of  faith  which  these  people 
professed,  surely  such  a  creed  should  be  sufficient  to 
serve  as  the  bearer  of  vital  Christianity  to-day.  Our 
one  purpose,  then,  must  be  to  discover  just  what  in 
New  Testament  days  a  convert  was  compelled  to 
believe  in  order  to  be  a  Christian.  Any  creed  con- 
taining less  than  this  will  assuredly  lack  Apostolic 
authority ;  any  creed  containing  more  than  this  will 
bind  to  a  greater  degree  than  vital  Christianity 
demands.  Assuredly  the  creed  of  the  Apostolic 
days  may  well  be  regarded  as  the  ideal  creed  of  the 
religion  of  Christ. 

The  problem,  looked  at  from  this  point  of  view, 
is  both  easy  and  difficult.  Easy,  because  the  con- 
fession of  the  early  Church  is  frequently  given  in 
the  New  Testament ;  difficult,  because  it  is  always 
given  in  such  brief  compass.  The  first  confession 
of  Christianity  was  that  of  the  Apostle  Peter,  as  re- 
corded in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Matthew — "  Thou 
art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God."  The 
apparently  interpolated  confession  of  the  eunuch 
in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
says  practically  the  same  thing.  In  a  number  of 
other  cases,  it  is  simply  announced  that  converts 
were  asked  to  believe  "  in,"  or  "  on,"  "  the  Lord 


CREED  119 

Jesus  Christ."  The  Philippian  jailer  was  thus  told, 
along  with  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  and  the  Roman 
centurion.  Yery  clearly,  then,  the  creed  of  the 
early  Church  was  the  simplest  possible  profession 
of  a  belief  in  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  or  the  Anointed 
One  of  God. 

All  this  seems  easy  enough ;  the  difficult 
problem  arises  when  we  attempt  to  interpret 
the  confession  of  Peter,  or  the  pseudo-confes- 
sion of  the  eunuch.  What  is  meant  by  those 
words  "  belief  in  Christ "  ?  What  did  the  Apostles 
mean  when  they  used  them  ?  What  concept  did 
the  early  convert  have  in  his  mind  when  they  were 
put  to  him  and  he  breathed  an  affirmative  reply  ? 
Obviously,  all  the  creeds  of  historic  Christendom 
have  started  at  this  point.  It  seems  perfectly  clear, 
however,  that  a  statement  of  faith  which  would  be 
intelligible  to  a  Jerusalem  Jew,  a  jailer  at  Philippi, 
a  Greek  woman  at  Athens,  and  the  lower  order  of 
servants  at  Rome,  would  not  be  very  recondite  or 
profound.  To  believe  in  Christ,  or  to  acknowledge 
Jesus  as  the  Christ,  must  therefore  have  been  some- 
thing very  clear  in  meaning,  very  simple,  and  yet 
very  comprehensive  and  complete.  Any  special 
theory  regarding  the  much  mooted  points  of  theo- 
logical dogma  could  hardly  have  found  a  place  in 
such  a  concept.     When  one  studies  this  early  con- 


120  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

fession  more  and  more,  he  is  irresistibly  driven  to 
the  conclusioa  that  the  first  creed  of  Christendom 
was  not  a  statement  of  dogma  at  all,  but  rather  an 
affirmation  in  regard  to  the  Christ  ideal  of  life.  In 
other  words,  the  early  convert,  when  asked  to  be- 
lieve that  ''Jesus  is  the  Christ,"  was  asked  to 
accept  Jesus  as  his  Ultimate  Ideal,  as  his  Supreme 
Lord  and  King,  as  the  One  whom  he  pledged  him- 
self to  obey  in  all  things  pertaining  to  life  and 
destiny.  This  of  course  was  to  accept  His  Divinity, 
and  it  is  the  only  practical  meaning  which  the  Divin- 
ity of  Christ  can  have  for  any  one.  The  word  Christ 
itself,  in  its  interpretation  as  the  Anointed  One, 
conveys  precisely  this  idea.  To  believe  that  Jesus 
is  the  Anointed  One  is  to  believe  that  He  is  Lord 
and  King  of  one's  life,  and  to  say  that  we  will 
strive  to  realize  His  life  in  our  own. 

In  the  Gospels,  such  an  interpretation  of  the  words 
"  belief  in  Christ "  finds  ample  warrant  and  support. 
In  His  famous  sermon  on  the  Bread  of  Life,  preached 
at  Capernaum,  Jesus,  in  the  boldest  and  most 
daring  imagery  conceivable,  asserted  the  necessity 
for  realizing  His  ideal  of  life.  To  the  crude  ma- 
terialistic interpretation  of  His  words.  He  retorted 
in  vain  His  interpretative  statement,  "It  is  the 
spirit  that  quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing." 
Clearly,  therefore,  in  this  greatest  of  His  discourses 


CREED  121 

after  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  He  taught  the 
necessity  for  an  appropriation  of  His  ideal  of  life 
by  the  soul,  in  order  that  it  should  develop  and 
grow.  "  I  am  the  Bread  of  Life  "  means  "  I  am 
the  Ideal  which  the  soul  must  realize  in  order  that 
it  may  live  and  live  forever."  The  famous  "I 
Am's  "  used  by  the  Great  Teacher  upon  many  other 
occasions  indicate  the  same  idea.  He  is  the  Living 
Water,  as  He  is  the  Bread  of  Life,  because  He 
furnishes  the  supreme  ideal  after  \vhich  man  must 
fashion  his  character  and  soul.  Yery  obviously, 
then,  an  affirmation  of  acquiescence  in  His  ideal 
of  life  ought  to  constitute  the  confession  of  faith 
demanded  from  His  disciples. 

In  the  Epistles  of  Paul  and  the  other  Apostolic 
writers,  we  find  a  similar  confirmation.  Paul, 
although  distinctively  a  theologian  in  temper,  no- 
where obtrudes  even  his  theology  as  an  essential 
part  of  the  Christian's  creed.  He  is  very  pro- 
nounced in  saying,  however,  that  unless  a  so-called 
Christian  possesses  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none 
of  His.  By  way  of  defining  this  language,  he 
gives  his  famous  catalogue  of  the  ^'fruits  of  the 
Spirit,"  which  is  really  nothing  more  than  a 
condensed  outline  of  vital  Christianity.  A  great 
part  of  Paul's  instructions  as  contained  in  the 
Epistles  bears  directly  upon  practical  living  and 


122  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

behavior.  Still  more  practical  than  Paul  is  James, 
perhaps  the  first,  chronologically  speaking,  of  all 
New  Testament  writers.  Pure  religion  is  defined 
by  him,  as  it  was  by  his  Master  when  conversing 
with  the  rich  young  ruler,  as  the  incarnation  of 
service  and  righteousness  ;  and  his  entire  Epistle 
shows  the  tremendous  emphasis  placed  upon  vital 
Christianity  and  the  practical  realization  of  Christ's 
ideals  in  the  early  Apostolic  days. 

Much  argument  has  centred  around  the  Great 
Commission,  especially  as  it  is  found  in  Matthew 
and  Mark.  A  prominent  agnostic  as  we  have  al- 
ready noted  has  commented  upon  the  cruelty  of 
the  words,  ''  He  that  belie veth  not  shall  be  con- 
demned." Still  others  have  attacked  the  idea  of 
belief  as  a  volitional  process.  To  condemn  a  man 
for  failing  to  believe  that  which  his  reason  will  not 
accept  is  assuredly  the  part  of  neither  reason  nor 
justice.  But  belief,  as  the  Great  Commission  used 
the  word,  and  as  the  early  Christians  understood 
it,  did  not  refer  to  any  philosophical  or  theological 
concept,  upon  which  men  might  and  necessarily 
would  differ.  Rather  did  it  refer  to  the  acceptance 
of  a  certain  ideal  as  the  guide  of  life,  and  this  any 
one  could  do  without  in  the  slightest  degree  violat- 
ing his  intellectual  honesty.  The  Great  Commis- 
sion does  not  say,  for  example,  "  He  that  belie  veth 


CREED  123 

in  this  or  that  theory  of  the  atonement  shall  be 
saved,"  nor  is  there  anything  about  it  which  would 
warrant  such  a  statement.  The  words  are  simply, 
"  He  that  belie veth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved." 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  significance  of 
the  creed  herein  advocated,  as  applied  to  the  per- 
manence of  Christianity.  Such  a  creed  can  never 
be  outgrown,  never  need  any  revision,  never  fail  to 
interpret  properly  the  religion  of  which  it  is  a  part. 
As  long  as  men  are  willing  to  acknowledge  their 
adherence  to  the  Christ  ideal  of  life,  so  long  will 
there  be  Christians  in  the  world ;  and  whenever 
men  fail  to  do  this,  Christianity  will  disappear. 

The  first  confession  of  the  Church,  the  great 
confession  of  Peter,  must  be,  therefore,  her  last 
confession.  Upon  this  rock  she  was  first  builded, 
and  upon  this  rock  her  eternal  permanence  must 
rest.  When  men  say  with  the  Fisherman  of  Gali- 
lee, "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living 
God,"  they  have  accepted  the  ultimate  and  uni- 
versal creed  ;  and  beyond  this  it  is  useless  to  go. 
Upon  this  great  historic  creed,  not  as  a  statement 
of  dogma,  not  as  a  pronouncement  of  philosophy, 
not  as  a  tenet  of  theology,  but  as  a  practical  ex- 
pression of  a  desire  to  live  the  Christ  life,  the 
mighty  hosts  of  Christendom  will  some  time  be 
one.     Here    and    here    alone,    we    find    common 


124  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

ground.  That  Christianity  which  does  not  recog- 
nize the  Christ  Character  as  its  goal  is  a  mistaken 
interpretation  of  the  Master's  teaching  and  life. 
That  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  which  does 
so  interpret  His  message,  can  unite  upon  His  own 
universal  creed.  Each  man  will  retain,  as  hereto- 
fore, his  private  interpretation  in  regard  to  matters 
of  theology,  but  all  will  unite  upon  the  one  vital 
creed,  a  creed  broad  enough  to  include  all  Chris- 
tians, and  yet  narrow  enough  and  strong  enough 
to  embrace  every  necessary  element  of  the  religion 
of  Christ. 


n 

OEDINANCE 

AS  the  question  of  creed  deals  with  that 
which  one  must  believe  in  order  to  belong 
to  the  Church,  so  the  question  of  ordi- 
nance has  for  its  province  that  which  one  must  do 
or  perform.  There  can  be  no  efficient  organization 
without  at  least  some  simple  form  or  forms  to 
serve  as  its  skeleton.  No  secret  order,  for  example, 
exists  without  its  initiatory  rites  ;  and  the  plain- 
est sort  of  psychology  demands  always  that  there 
should  be  some  means  by  which  to  express  one's 
belief  in  action.  The  religion  of  Christ,  as  em- 
bodied in  the  Church,  has  found  the  simplest  pos- 
sible way  in  which  to  express  its  fundamental 
tenets.  Two  ordinances,  the  one  as  initiatory,  the 
other  as  perpetual,  constitute  its  entire  framework. 
We  call  these  ordinances  Baptism,  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  or  the  Eucharist.  Ample  Scriptural  war- 
rant may  easily  be  found  for  both  of  these  sacra- 
ments ;  none  of  significance  for  any  other.  Some 
Christian  bodies,  indeed,  assert  the  existence  of 
other  ordinances  ;  but  in  almost  every  case  they 

125 


126  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

base  the  ground  for  this  assertion,  not  upon  the 
New  Testament  procedure,  but  upon  the  grant  of 
superior  powers  presumably  given  the  Church. 

The  establishment  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism  as 
the  initiatory  rite  demanded  by  Jesus  Christ  of 
those  who  desire  to  become  His  disciples,  is  per- 
fectly clear.  The  Great  Commission,  in  both 
Matthew  and  Mark,  commands  baptism  as  an  es- 
sential symbol  of  conversion  for  the  followers  of 
the  Man  of  Galilee.  In  the  opening  discourse  of 
Peter  upon  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  converts  to 
his  preaching  were  commanded — "  Repent  and  be 
baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Following  this 
pronouncement,  it  is  stated,  "  They  that  gladly  re- 
ceived his  word  were  baptized."  The  Ethiopian 
eunuch,  desiring  to  become  a  follower  of  Christ, 
was  forthwith  baptized.  The  Philippian  jailer, 
professing  a  similar  faith,  was  baptized  the  same 
hour  of  the  night.  Even  Saul  of  Tarsus,  though 
chosen  in  a  special  way,  for  a  special  mission,  none 
the  less  wa,s  likewise  commanded  to  be  baptized,  be- 
fore his  permanent  enrollment  among  the  followers 
of  Christ.  It  may  suffice,  in  this  connection,  to 
say  that  there  is  no  record  in  the  New  Testament 
of  admission  to  the  Church  without  baptism,  and 


ORDINANCE  127 

that  in  every  specific  case  where  details  of  conver- 
sion are  given,  the  ordinance  is  directly  mentioned. 
Even  the  Supreme  Teacher  Himself  was  baptized, 
although  over  the  protest  of  the  baptizer.  If  there 
is  anything,  therefore,  quite  explicitly  taught  in  the 
New  Testament,  it  is  the  existence  of  baptism  as 
the  initiatory  ordinance  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Three  more  or  less  vexing  problems  follow,  how- 
ever, upon  this  admission.  These  three  problems  re- 
late to  the  design,  the  subjects  and  the  action  of 
the  ordinance.  In  other  words,  why  are  people 
baptized  ?  what  people  are  fit  subjects  for  Christian 
baptism  ?  and  how  are  such  subjects  baptized  ? 

The  answer  to  the  first  of  these  questions  has  been 
in  large  measure  already  given.  Without  some 
initiatory  rite,  no  framework  for  the  Church  could 
be  found,  and  only  upon  obedience  to  this  rite 
could  the  convert  be  said  to  dedicate  himself  com- 
pletely to  the  new  ideal  of  life.  Both  the  volitional 
assent  implied  in  the  creed,  and  likewise  the  prac- 
tical assent  implied  in  the  ordinance  of  baptism, 
were  needed  in  order  to  complete  the  conversion,  as 
the  New  Testament  writers  understood  the  term. 
Anything  short  of  this  would  mean  an  incomplete 
dedication  and  therefore  an  unsatisfactory  one. 
For  this  reason,  baptism  is  coupled  with  the  "re- 
mission of  sins  "  in  the  language  of  Peter  on  the 


128  FOKMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

day  of  Pentecost,  as  well  as  in  the  speech  of  Paul 
before  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem,  as  recorded  in  the 
twenty-second  chapter  of  Acts.  Formally  speak- 
ing, complete  obedience  to  the  commands  of  Christ 
was  needed  before  the  convert  had  fully  put  on  the 
Christian  faith.  Of  course  the  absurd  question 
sometimes  propounded,  "  Can  a  man  be  saved  with- 
out baptism  ?  "  or  the  similar  one,  *'  Is  baptism  es- 
sential to  the  forgiveness  of  sins  ?  "  and  the  like, 
needs  no  comment  here.  The  right-minded  man 
will  always  want  to  do  what  it  is  clearly  his  duty 
to  do,  regardless  of  consequences.  That  the  scheme 
of  the  New  Testament  Church  demands  baptism  for 
admission  should  be  clear  to  all.  That  baptism,  or 
any  rite  of  formal  Christianity,  is  the  whole  of  the 
religion  of  Christ,  only  those  who  have  mistaken 
the  end  for  the  means  will  assert.  It  is  clearly, 
therefore,  the  duty  of  the  man  who  would  become  a 
Christian  to  be  baptized;  whatever  significance 
may  attach  to  the  ordinance  is  not  for  him  to  ques- 
tion. That  is  an  altogether  wrong  frame  of  mind 
which  asks,  "  How  far  may  I  neglect  my  duty  and 
still  be  saved  ?  "  The  right-minded  man  does  not 
want  to  neglect  his  duty,  whether  it  be  important 
or  unimportant,  if  he  be  once  clearly  shown  that, 
however  insignificant  it  may  appear,  it  is  still  his 
duty,  and  therefore  on  no  account  to  be  despised. 


ORDINANCE  129 

The  answer  to  the  second  question  is  likewise 
largely  involved  in  the  first.  If  baptism  is  the 
initiatory  rite  admitting  the  penitent  believer  into 
the  Church,  if  it  is  the  final  step  in  the  process  of 
conversion,  if  it  is  the  expression  in  action  of  the 
volitional  acceptance  of  the  creed,  if  it  is,  in  other 
words,  the  seal  of  an  honest  determination  to  fol- 
low Christ  and  His  ideal  of  life,  then  very  obviously 
its  subjects  are  already  designated.  Only  those 
who  can  make  such  a  determination  are  eligible. 
That  idea  which  puts  baptism  first  instead  of  last 
in  the  process  assuredly  has  no  warrant  in  either 
psychology  or  Scripture.  This  is  written  in  all 
kindness,  and  with  the  fullest  possible  appreciation 
of  the  value  of  a  dedicatory  service  for  the  children 
of  Christian  parents.  That  a  child,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, should  be  brought  up  in  the  Church  and 
dedicated  to  her  service  is  very  apparent ;  but  that 
such  a  dedication  should  be  styled  Christian  bap- 
tism is  by  no  means  thus  apparent.  Christian  bap- 
tism, as  indicated  in  the  New  Testament,  is  the  final 
initiatory  act  of  obedience  which  admits  one  to  full 
fellowship  with  Christ.  So  far  at  least  as  the 
testimony  of  the  record  shows,  it  should  always 
follow  and  never  precede  that  complete  surrender 
to  the  Christ  ideal  of  life  which  is  the  vital  element 
in  all  true  conversion. 


130  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

The  answer  to  the  third  question  is  also  largely 
involved  in  what  has  been  already  written.  How 
people  were  baptized  when  the  ordinance  was  first 
established  would  seem  to  be  reasonably  plain  from 
the  testimony  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  appeal  to  linguistic  or  technical  argu- 
ment to  establish  the  character  of  the  ordinance. 
Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  underscore 
the  word  as  it  occurs  in  the  New  Testament,  in  our 
English  versions,  and  read  the  context  carefully  in 
each  case,  will  discover  that  only  one  action  will 
fully  satisfy  all  the  requirements  of  the  text.  To 
^'  go  down  into  the  water,"  to  "  come  up  from  it," 
to  "  be  buried,"  "  washing  of  regeneration,"  and 
the  like  expressions,  are  clearly  interpreted  in  one 
way  and  one  alone.  Added  to  this  testimony  of 
the  text  is  the  original  significance  of  the  word, 
and  the  now  overwhelming  weight  of  scholarship 
in  regard  to  the  matter.  Very  absurd  here  again 
is  the  question  sometimes  propounded,  "  Can  a  man 
be  saved  who  has  not  been  immersed  ? "  What 
folly  to  talk  of  consequences,  if  immersion  is  really 
the  act  of  Christian  baptism  !  The  external  action 
may  or  may  not  be  of  special  significance,  but  be- 
ing a  part  of  the  ordinance,  the  right-minded  man 
should  always  desire  that  every  part  measure  up, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  to  the  correct  standard.     That 


ORDINANCE  131 

the  action  of  baptism,  which  is  a  part  of  one  of  the 
ordinances  of  formal  Christianity,  is  the  whole  of 
the  religion  of  Christ,  is  quite  as  absurd  as  the  idea 
that  because  it  occupies  such  a  position  it  should 
not  be  performed  correctly.  An  ideal  standard  in 
religion  demands  accuracy,  not  only  as  regards  the 
greatest,  but  also  as  regards  every  question  upon 
which  it  is  possible  for  us  to  secure  accurate  infor- 
mation at  all. 

The  significant  opposition  to  the  views  of  the 
first  Christian  ordinance  herein  expressed  is 
grounded  in  one  theory,  the  theory  so  ably  main- 
tained by  the  oldest  and  largest  of  all  the  divisions 
of  Christendom.  This  theory  may  be  expressed 
in  a  word.  That  the  original  constitution  of  the 
Church  provided  for  immersion  as  Christian  bap- 
tism, we  readily  concede.  To  the  Church,  however, 
was  given  the  power  to  change  her  own  constitution 
in  such  a  way  or  ways  as  should  best  suit  her  pur- 
poses and  convenience.  This  principle,  the  idea 
that  the  Church  herself  has  power  to  change  her 
fundamental  constitution  from  age  to  age,  is  back 
of  all  the  significant  opposition  to  the  doctrines  and 
practice  of  the  New  Testament  organization.  That 
power  which  is  taken  away  from  the  constitution 
is  thus  given  to  the  ecclesiastical  organization. 

That  the  Church  has  power  to  adapt  herself  in  all 


132  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

non-essential  particulars  to  the  needs  of  the  age,  is 
indeed  plain ;  but  it  is  no  plainer  than  the  fact  that 
in  essential  particulars  she  does  not  possess  any- 
such  power.  Baptism  is  the  initiatory  rite  of  the 
Church  ;  it  is  a  feature  of  its  fundamental  constitu- 
tion. Now  unless  specific  provision  is  made  within 
the  constitution  itself  for  change,  it  is  an  unwar- 
ranted assumption  to  presuppose  such  a  power. 
But  one  searches  the  Scriptures  in  vain  to  discover 
evidence  of  such  amendatory  provision.  There  is 
not  the  slightest  hint  contained  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  any  number  of  Christians  constituting 
the  visible  body  of  the  Church  at  any  future  time 
should  possess  the  right  to  change  her  fundamental 
constitution.  When  Christ  said  in  the  terms  of  the 
Great  Commission,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature ;  he  that  be- 
lieveth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  and  he  that 
belie veth  not  shall  be  condemned,"  there  is  no  hint 
or  suggestion  that  the  baptism  spoken  of  should 
mean  one  thing  in  one  age  and  another  thing  in 
another.  Only  those  who  believe  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  great  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  with  such 
absolute  powers  as  to  make  it  supreme  over  all 
constitution  and  law,  can  justify  a  conclusion  of  the 
character  suggested.  Such  a  hierarchy,  however, 
violates  not  only  the  provisions  for  formal  Christi- 


ORDINANCE  133 

anity  as  found  in  the  New  Testament,  but  also  de- 
stroys at  least  one  of  the  essentials  of  vital  Christi- 
anity, the  noble  ideal  of  freedom.  Those  who 
believe  in  an  ecclesiasticism  of  this  sort  may,  how- 
ever, logically  justify  a  departure  from  the  New 
Testament  standards,  but  we  cannot  see  how  it  is 
possible  for  others  to  do  so. 

The  second  ordinance  of  the  Church,  the  ordinance 
for  permanent  and  perpetual  observance,  is  usually 
styled  the  Lord's  Supper  or  the  Eucharist.  Common 
consent  has  likewise  established  this  rite  as  an 
essential  feature  of  the  Christian  worship.  Insti- 
tuted by  Christ,  symbolic  of  His  sufferings  and 
death,  practiced  by  the  Church  in  unbroken  suc- 
cession since  the  Apostolic  days,  its  claim  to  a 
fundamental  position  in  any  formal  analysis  of 
Christianity  is  undisputed  and  indisputable.  Its 
significance  doubtless  arises  from  the  fact  that  by 
its  simple  symbolism  that  Ideal  Life,  the  closing 
scenes  of  which  it  commemorates,  is  brought  the 
more  vividly  before  the  minds  of  the  professed 
followers  of  Christ.  It  has  therefore  a  very  impor- 
tant function  in  serving  as  a  bearer  of  vital 
Christianity.  It  preaches. in  undying  and  eloquent 
tones  the  supreme  act  of  service  of  that  Life  which 
was  devoted  throughout  to  the  service  of  all.     It 


134  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

strengthens  the  resolution  taken  in  the  initiatory 
ordinance  of  baptism,  and  helps  to  keep  it  alive. 
The  early  Christians  were  fully  aware  of  its 
significance,  and  regarded  it  as  an  essential  part  of 
their  ordinary  worship.  That  they  observed  it  reg- 
ularly on  the  first  day  of  every  week  is  the 
obvious  inference  of  the  text,^  though  no  specific 
command  to  that  effect  is  recorded. 

Theological  interpretations  of  either  of  the  two 
fundamental  ordinances  of  Christianity  form  no 
essential  part  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  Funda- 
mentally externa]  actions  expressive  of  an  inner 
purpose  or  decision  of  will,  they  constitute  the 
simple  framework  which  serves  as  the  bearer  of 
the  Christ  ideal  of  life.  Men  may  interpret  them 
in  whatever  mystical  or  philosophical  way  they 
please,  so  long  as  they  do  not  seek  to  bind  their 
own  interpretations  upon  the  consciences  of  others. 
The  most  cruel  and  unfortunate  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  was  written  by  the  efforts  of 
some  men  to  bind  upon  others  their  own  theories  of 
the  Eucharist.  Such  attempts  of  course  came  from 
a  misinterpretation  of  both  vital  and  formal  Chris- 
tianity. The  latter  never  demanded  coercion  of  the 
kind ;  and  the  former,  through  the  ideal  of  freedom, 

'  See  Acts  xx.  7 — "  And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when 
the  disciples  came  together  to  break  bread,  Paul  preached  unto 
them." 


ORDINANCE  135 

utterly  contradicted  it.  In  all  our  temptations  to 
theological  acerbity  over  the  ordinances,  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  the  spirit  they  breathe  is  ever  the 
spirit  of  love  and  service,  and  that  unless  that  spirit 
is  present  in  our  discussions,  we  have  observed  these 
rites  in  vain.  Well  did  the  old  Psalmist  say,  not 
indeed  in  this,  but  in  a  similar  connection : 

*'  For  thou  desirest  not  sacrifice  ;  else  would 
I  give  it  : 
Thou  delightest  not  in  burnt  offering. 
The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit : 
A  broken  aud  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  Thou 
wilt  not  despise.'^ 

Well,  too,  has  Frederick  W.  Faber  expressed  the 
spirit  of  all  the  ordinances  in  his  beautiful  words  : 

''  There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy, 

Like  the  wideuess  of  the  sea  : 

There's  a  kindness  in  His  justice, 

Which  is  more  than  liberty. 

^  ^  ^  ^  i^: 

For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 

Than  the  measure  of  man's  mind  ; 
And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 

Is  most  wonderfully  kind. 
If  our  love  were  but  more  simple, 

We  should  take  Him  at  His  word  ; 
And  our  lives  would  be  all  sunshine 

In  the  sweetness  of  our  Lord.'^ 


Ill 

POLITY 

PEKHAPS  the  most  difficult  problem  of 
formal  Christianity  is  the  question  of  pol- 
ity, or  church  government.  The  creed  of 
the  Apostolic  Church  does  not  seem  hard  to  de- 
termine, and  although  there  has  been  more  or  less 
discussion  upon  the  question  of  ordinance,  it  is  upon 
the  subject  of  polity  that  the  most  serious  lines  of 
cleavage  among  the  followers  of  Christ  are  to  be 
found. 

Three  forms  of  government,  the  Episcopalian, 
the  Presbyterian  and  the  Congregational,  are  in 
existence  among  Protestant  bodies.  It  seems  very 
probable  that  these  different  forms  originated 
largely  from  the  prevailing  types  in  vogue  among 
the  different  nations  when  the  Church  began  its 
work.  Imperial  Eome  furnished  the  germ  of  the 
episcopacy;  the  Judean  Synagogue,  the  starting- 
point  of  the  presbytery ;  and  the  free  Greek  com- 
munities of  Asia  Minor  and  elsewhere,  the  basis  of 
Congregationalism.  Nothing  is  clearer  than  the 
fact  that  no  special  polity  is  set  forth  in  a  manda- 
tory way  in  the  New  Testament.    It  is  certain  that 

136 


POLITY  137 

specific  officers  known  as  elders  and  deacons  formed 
a  part  of  the  early  church  organization.  Paul  or- 
dained elders  in  all  of  the  churches,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  diaconate  is  set  forth  in  detail  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  The  duties  pertaining  to 
these  offices  are  also  clearly  outlined  in  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  of  the  Apostle  of  Tarsus.  There  is  no 
reference  in  the  New  Testament  to  any  organized 
Church  with  a  central  head,  though  there  are  a 
number  of  references  to  the  Churches  of  Christ  col- 
lectively. The  Church  at  Jerusalem  seems  to  have 
had  some  special  weight  in  the  early  counsels  of 
Christendom,  a  fact  doubtless  due  to  the  presence 
of  so  many  of  the  Apostles  ;  but  there  is  nothing 
said  of  any  central  ecclesiasticism,  either  there  or  at 
Kome. 

The  polity  of  the  Apostolic  Church  in  the  J^ew 
Testament  days,  so  far  as  it  can  be  determined, 
was  therefore  unquestionably  Congregational.  That 
there  was  any  specific  injunction  laid  upon  the 
Church  of  future  ages  to  continue  this  polity,  may 
be  questioned.  That  the  creed  and  the  ordinances, 
as  fixed  and  fundamental  factors  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  Christianity,  cannot  be  changed,  except  by 
the  great  Head  of  the  Church  Himself,  seems  clear ; 
but  the  same  is  not  equally  true  of  any  distinctive 
polity.     That  form  of  government  which  will  best 


138  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

subserve  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  whole  Church 
would  seem  to  be  the  form  required  by  Scriptural 
authority.  This  being  conceded,  it  still  remains 
questionable  whether  any  form  more  satisfactory 
than  that  actually  in  existence  in  the  Apostolic  days 
has  been  devised  since.  Any  government  which 
does  violence  to  the  third  great  ideal  of  Christ  is 
sure,  in  the  end,  to  cost  more  than  it  is  worth. 

The  idea  of  Apostolic  succession,  held  by  a  large 
and  eminently  respectable  portion  of  Christendom, 
relies  to  no  small  degree  upon  tradition  for  its  basis, 
and  as  a  dogma  will  probably  never  command  any- 
thing like  universal  acceptance.  The  Episcopacy  as  a 
form  of  government  may  perhaps  meet  wath  better 
success,  though  it  will  in  all  likelihood  have  to  un- 
dergo essential  modifications  if  it  does  so.  The 
Presbyterian  polity  has  also  many  points  in  its 
favor,  but  it  seems  hardly  probable  that  it  will 
ever  appeal  to  the  hosts  of  universal  Christendom. 

There  is  a  demand  for  freedom  in  the  modern  age 
which  cannot  be  suppressed.  The  Congregational 
polity  gratifies  this  demand,  but  is  weak  along  the 
line  of  effective  organization  and  direction.  A 
polity  which  w^ould  guarantee  the  freedom  of  the 
last  of  the  trinity  and  the  effectiveness  of  the  first, 
would  appear  to  be  the  ideal.  This  seems  to  be 
reached  largely  through  the  cooperation  of  inde- 


POLITY  139 

pendent  churches  bound  together  not  by  authority, 
but  by  reason  and  love.  The  extreme  independence 
of  a  radical  Congregationalism  is  almost  if  not  alto- 
gether as  defective  as  the  excessive  centralism  of  a 
despotic  hierarchy.  Not  all  the  problems  of  church 
polity  are  yet  Avorked  out,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
the  religion  of  Christ  demands  that  measure  of  free- 
dom which  was  guaranteed  each  individual  church 
in  the  Apostolic  days,  and  beyond  this,  all  the  effi- 
ciency in  the  way  of  organization  that  it  is  possible 
to  secure. 

Whatever  organization  may  be  effected  must 
assuredly  be  founded  upon  the  'New  Testament 
basis.  Whatever  cooperation  may  be  secured  must 
come  from  the  .free  Churches  of  Christ  as  indi- 
vidual units,  and  dare  not  be  imposed  upon  them. 
Perfect  autonomy  and  freedom  must  be  guaran- 
teed to  the  individual  Christian  and  the  individual 
church.  This  was  the  victory  won  in  the  Eeforma- 
tion,  and  its  fruits  must  not  be  thrown  away. 
Starting  from  the  New  Testament  idea  of  free  but 
cooperating  units,  there  will  result  that  final  organ- 
ization of  the  Church  which  will  guarantee  perfect 
liberty  to  each  and  absolute  efficiency  to  all.  We 
are  perhaps  not  ready  for  this  yet,  taking  the  Chris- 
tian world  as  a  whole ;  but  we  are  rapidly  getting 
ready.     In  the  meantime,  individual  churches  of  all 


140  FORMAL  CHEISTIANITY 

communions  should  cultivate  the  cooperative  spirit, 
and  endeavor  to  help  each  other  in  the  common 
warfare  against  evil.  Whenever  the  Church  of 
Christ  becomes  one,  in  answer  to  the  Master's 
prayer,  it  will  be  through  the  cooperation  of  indi- 
vidual churches  from  the  bottom,  and  never  by- 
legislative  enactment  fi^om  the  top.  This  coopera- 
tion all  Christians  should  encourage,  and  the  good 
feeling  thus  engendered  will  prove  no  small  element 
in  solving  other  problems  of  divergence.  With  a 
better  understanding  of  each  other,  with  the  spirit 
of  prejudice  disappearing  before  the  spirit  of  prayer, 
and  with  an  honest  effort  on  the  part  of  each  one 
to  do  his  duty  in  the  contest  against  the  common 
foe,  the  goal  of  Christendom  in  the  matter  of  or- 
ganization will  be  reached  ere  w^e  are  aware.  The 
motto  of  all  Christians  in  regard  to  polity,  as  in 
other  matters,  must  ever  be,  "  In  essentials  unity, 
in  non-essentials  freedom,  in  all  things  charity." 
To  borrow  the  expressive  sentence  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster in  his  "  Eeply  to  Hayne,"  the  watchword  of  the 
Church,  no  less  than  the  watchword  of  the  state,  in 
matters  of  government,  must  be  : 

''Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  in- 
separable.'' 


lY 

THE  SPIEITUAL  AKD  MYSTICAL  ELE- 
MENT IN  EELIGION 

CREED,  ordinance  and  polity  constitute  the 
skeleton  or  framework  of  the  Church,  but 
they  do  not  constitute  all  that  is  meant  by 
the  religious  life.  Nor  does  the  practice  of  vital 
Christianity,  in  addition  to  them,  include  all  that 
there  is  in  religion.  To  be  a  Christian,  to  be  a 
member  of  Christ's  Church,  means  something  more, 
and  that  something  more  is  embraced  in  the  emo- 
tional and  spiritual  content  of  formal  Christianity 
usually  included  under  the  idea  of  worship.  Wor- 
ship is  largely  an  emotional  term,  and  embodies  all 
of  that  mystical  and  sesthetic  element  which  has 
proven  so  appealing  to  many  minds  in  all  times  and 
all  ages.  Worship  includes  the  idea  of  prayer, 
with  its  wonderful  voice  for  the  aching  heart  of 
humanity ;  it  includes  likewise  the  assthetic  appeal 
of  great  architecture  and  painting  and  music  ;  it 
has  to  do  with  what  we  style  ritual,  and  all  those 
forms  and  ceremonies  w^hich,  however  complex  or 
simple  they  may  be,  touch  the  heart  and  move  the 

141 


142  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

soul.  Even  so  stern  a  Puritan  as  Milton  could  not 
help  being  affected  by  the  "studious  cloister's 
pale,"  and 

*^  the  high  embowed  roof, 
With  antique  pillars  massy-proof, 
And  storied  windows  richly  dight, 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light," 

while  the  voice  of  music  spoke  even  more  appeal- 
ingly  than  that  of  architecture  to  his  soul : 


**  There  let  the  pealing  organ  blow 
To  the  full- voiced  quire  below, 
In  service  high,  aud  authems  clear. 
As  may  with  sweetness,  through  mine  ear, 
Dissolve  me  into  ecstasies, 
And  bring  all  heaven  before  mine  eyes." 


Without  attempting  any  exhaustive  analysis  of 
this  tremendously  rich  side  of  the  religious  concept, 
we  shall  endeavor  to  embody  the  most  important 
features  under  a  threefold  division:  first,  the 
mystical  or  spiritual  side  of  the  Christian  religion, 
embraced  in  an  especial  manner  under  the  various 
interpretations  and  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Spirit; 
second,  the  function  of  prayer ;  and  third,  the 
element  of  ritual  and  the  aesthetic  in  general  as 
applied  to  Christianity. 

The    first    involves    a    great    part    of    religion 


SPIRITUAL  ELEMENTS  143 

to  many  Christians ;  and  although  there  are  num- 
berless theories  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  some  place 
is  given  to  Him  in  all  systems  of  Christianity. 
No  Christian  church  is  without  a  belief  of  some 
sort  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  more  mystical 
the  individual  Christian  may  be,  the  greater 
part  will  this  belief  play  in  his  life ;  while  the 
more  rationalistic  and  unemotional  he  is,  the  less 
significance  will  he  attach  to  it.  To  dogmatize  in 
a  matter  which  is  of  such  obviously  individual 
interpretation  would  be  absurd.  Theories  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  like  theories  dealing  with  other  mat- 
ters of  dogma  and  theology,  are  not  to  be  enforced 
by  one  Christian  upon  another.  The  mystic  and 
the  rationalist  may  both  be  Christians  upon  the 
common  foundation  of  the  confession  of  Peter, 
though  the  one  "  sees  visions  and  dreams  dreams," 
while  the  other  sees  no  visions  at  all.  The  religion 
of  Christ  is  broad  enough  to  include  them  all,  so 
long  as  the  mystic  keeps  reason  enough  to  transact 
the  ordinary  business  of  life,  and  so  long  as  the 
rationalist  keeps  mysticism  enough  to  believe  in  a 
spiritual  reality  beyond  the  things  of  material 
sense.  To  say  that  only  the  mystic  is  a  Christian 
is  absurd ;  to  say  that  he  is  not  a  Christian  is 
equally  so. 

The   spiritual  significance   of    Christianity  is  a 


144  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

theme  which  should  receive  the  earnest  attention 
of  every  Christian.  That  the  "  miracles  of  con- 
version "  which  the  modern  age  presents,  the 
reclamation  of  men  like  Gough  and  McAuley  and 
Hadley,  the  lifting  up  of  whole  nations  such  as  the 
Feejee  and  Sandwich  Islanders,  and  other  examples 
of  similar  character — that  these  things  are  not 
evidences  of  a  power  beyond  the  purely  material, 
surely,  we  think,  admits  of  no  discussion.  How- 
ever rationalistic  in  temper  a  man  may  be,  in  the 
presence  of  the  facts  to  which  allusion  has  just 
been  made,  to  say  nothing  of  the  inexplicable 
mysteries  opened  up  by  the  whole  subject  of  genius 
and  inspiration,  he  must,  if  he  be  thoughtful  at  all, 
agree  with  the  sentiment  of  Hamlet : 

*'  There  are  more  thiugs  in  Heaven  and  Earth, 
Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy." 

The  function  of  prayer  as  an  essential  feature  of 
Christianity  will  hardly  be  disputed.  Here  again 
there  is  wide  room  for  divergence,  and  yet  cer- 
tainly all  men,  and  especially  all  Christians,  will 
pray  at  some  time  or  other.  Prayer  keys  the  soul 
to  the  Unseen  and  the  Infinite,  and  lifts  one  out  of 
his  little  individual  sphere  into  the  larger  com- 
munion with  the  universe  and  with   God.      No 


SPIRITUAL  ELEMENTS  145 

Christian  can  be  a  Christian  without  prayer,  and 
certainly  no  Christian  would  want  to  be  one  with- 
out it.  That  sympathy  with  the  spiritual  and  the 
ideal  which  was  at  the  heart  of  all  the  philosophy 
of  the  Nazarene  can  be  fostered  and  developed 
only  through  prayer.  Nothing  is  more  indisput- 
able or  significant  in  the  life  of  Jesus  than  His 
habit  of  constant  petition  to  His  Father.  Some- 
times He  remained  alone  all  night  in  solitary  sup- 
plication. In  communion  with  Nature,  upon  the 
mountain,  by  the  seashore,  or  among  the  hills, 
He  sought  strength  for  the  daily  task  which  was 
His.  Prayer  has  been  the  source  of  inspiration 
and  power  for  the  good  and  great  of  all  times  and 
all  ages.  Good  men  practically  without  exception 
are  and  have  been  men  of  prayer.  It  is  unneces- 
sary that  the  question  of  the  objective  or  the  sub- 
jective value  of  our  petitions  should  be  discussed 
here.  Whether  the  universe  comes  to  us  or  we 
come  to  the  universe  is,  after  all,  of  little  signifi- 
cance, providing  there  is  harmony  between  us. 
Robertson's  masterly  appeal  for  the  subjective 
value  of  prayer  has  a  place  along  with  George 
Muller's  orphanage  and  the  other  objective  wit» 
nesses.  The  great  significance  of  prayer  as  a  part 
of  the  Christian  religion  is  its  power  to  bring  one 
into  vital  touch  with  the  spiritual  and  the  ideal  side 


U6  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

of  life,  and  to  save  us  from  the  dominance  of  the 
sordid  and  the  material.  However  moral  a  man's 
life  may  be  objectively,  it  will  always  lack  richness 
and  fervor  unless  he  is  also  a  man  of  prayer. 

The  value  of  the  purely  artistic  or  aesthetic 
features  of  worship  is  also  one  which  has  provoked 
wide-spread  discussion.  Many  Christians  see  in 
great  architecture,  painting  and  music,  an  effective 
means  for  deepening  the  spiritual  life.  Others  on 
various  grounds  object  to  them  entirely.  That  the 
moral  content  of  Christianity  is  more  important 
than  its  aesthetic  features  must,  we  think,  be  con- 
ceded ;  and  yet  the  aesthetic  element  is  a  large  and 
significant  factor,  not  only  in  the  religious,  but  also 
in  the  total  life  of  man.  Great  music  has  un- 
doubtedly a  stimulative  value,  which,  properly 
used,  means  much  in  the  religious  life.  So  long  as 
the  art  element  remains  the  hand-maiden  of  relig- 
ion and  morals,  her  services  are  valuable  and  indeed 
almost  indispensable.  Whenever  she  usurps  the 
throne  for  herself,  however,  she  proves  destructive 
to  both.  No  architecture  can  be  too  superb  for 
the  material  dwelling  place  of  the  Church,  so  long 
as  the  Church  dwarfs  the  edifice  and  not  the  edifice 
the  Church.  No  music  can  be  too  inspiring  so  long 
as  it  points  to  the  Cross,  and  makes  men  and 
women  forget  its  own  beauty  by  revealing  the 


SPIRITUAL  ELEMENTS  147 

beauty  of  Christ.  ISTo  ritual  can  be  too  impressive 
so  long  as  it  holds  up  Christ  and  the  Christian  life 
before  men,  and  does  not  degenerate  into  the 
mockery  of  religious  pretense  and  sham.  Here 
again,  much  latitude  must  be  permitted  to  the 
individual  Christian  and  the  individual  Church. 
To  some  temperaments,  the  purely  sesthetic  element 
will  always  appeal ;  to  others,  it  will  not.  That 
there  is  a  place  for  it  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  no 
thinking  man  can  deny  ;  what  place  is  given  it 
will  depend  upon  the  extent  to  which  the  artistic 
side  of  life  makes  its  appeal  to  individual  Chris- 
tians. 

It  is  obvious  that  we  have  but  touched  upon  this 
rich  and  important  side  of  formal  Christianity. 
Many  other  factors  enter  into  worship,  which  we 
have  not  attempted  to  discuss.  The  Word  of  God, 
as  the  basis  not  only  of  this  feature  but  indeed  of 
both  vital  and  formal  Christianity  as  a  whole,  is  an 
important  example ;  the  personality  and  office  of 
the  preacher  is  another.  The  outline  given  will 
suffice,  however,  to  indicate  the  nature  of  the 
subject,  as  well  as  its  breadth  and  value.  What- 
ever a  man's  temperament  may  be,  he  finds  in 
a  true  religious  service  that  inspiration  which 
Wordsworth  depicts  in  one  of  his  choicest  pas- 
sages : 


148  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

''  that  blessed  mood, 
In  which  the  burthen  of  the  mystery, 
In  which  the  heavy  and  the  weary  weight 
Of  all  this  unintelligible  world, 
Is  lightened  :— that  serene  and  blessed  mood, 
In  which  the  affections  gently  lead  us  on 
Until,  the  breath  of  this  corporeal  frame 
And  even  the  motion  of  our  human  blood 
Almost  suspended,  we  are  laid  asleep 
In  body,  and  become  a  living  soul  : 
While  with  an  eye  made  quiet  by  the  power 
Of  harmony,  and  the  deep  power  of  joy, 
We  see  into  the  life  of  things." 


CONVEESION 

IT  would  seem  that  after  a  study  of  the  content 
of  religion,  or  vital  Christianity,  and  an  at- 
tempt at  least  towards  an  interpretation  of  the 
nature  and  function  of  the  Church,  nothing  would 
need  to  be  said  regarding  the  acceptance  of  Christ 
by  the  individual.  Obviously  the  man  who  turns 
to  the  Christ  ideal  of  life,  who  believes  in  Jesus  as 
Lord  and  King,  and  who  desires  to  enter  upon  His 
service,  should  have  no  difficulty  in  discovering 
how  to  carry  out  his  desire.  In  the  early  history 
of  the  Church,  as  recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  it  is  certain  that  men  found  little  difficulty 
in  becoming  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Three  thousand  were  added  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
alone,  and  large  numbers  upon  other  occasions. 

The  process  by  which  these  early  converts  became 
identified  with  the  Church  seems  to  have  been  ex- 
ceedingly simple.  That  process  may  be  expressed 
in  three  words  frequently  found  in  the  early  record. 
Those  three  words  were  belief,  repentance  and 
baptism.  The  first  word  related  to  an  intellectual 
acceptance  of  Christ  as  Lord,  and  the  life  which 

149 


150  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

He  advocated  as  the  true  life  for  man  to  live ;  the 
second  stood  for  a  resolute  turning  from  the  old  life 
to  walk  in  the  new ;  and  the  third  represented  the 
initiatory  rite  which  marked  the  complete  obedience 
of  the  convert  to  his  new  Master  and  Lord.  There 
is  no  case  of  conversion  recorded  in  the  history  of 
the  Church  as  given  in  the  New  Testament  which 
does  not  include  these  three  things.  Upon  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  as  Peter  for  the  first  time  proclaimed 
the  charter  of  the  new  Church,  when  those  who 
heard  his  burning  words  and  believed  them  to  be  true 
turned  to  him  and  said,  "  What  shall  we  do  ?  "  the 
answer  came  with  unerring  precision,  "  Repent  and 
be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; "  and  the  text  states, 
*^  They  that  gladly  received  his  word  were  baptized ; 
and  the  same  day  there  were  added  unto  them 
about  three  thousand  souls." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  place  too  much  em- 
phasis upon  this  account  of  the  first  additions 
to  the  Church  of  Christ,  as  recorded  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Acts.  Everything  conspired  to 
make  the  case  a  typical  one,  for  the  benefit 
of  all  who  should  come  after.  It  was  the  day 
of  the  formal  founding  of  the  Church  as  an 
organization,   that    day    being  signalized   by   the 


CONVERSION  151 

miraculous  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Peter,  as 
the  chief  spokesnian,  was  in  a  position  to  state 
authoritatively  all  necessary  facts  connected  with 
admission  to  the  new  organization.  It  was  as- 
suredly the  occasion  of  all  occasions  when  the 
method  of  conversion  should  have  been  made  per- 
fectly clear  and  plain.  So  far  as  the  record  at  least 
is  concerned,  it  could  not  indeed  have  been  made 
plainer.  The  three  thousand  yielded  their  assent 
to  the  new  doctrine,  an  assent  predicated  in  the 
question,  "  Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ?  " 
They  were  told  to  "  repent  and  be  baptized,"  and 
when  they  obeyed  this  injunction,  it  is  recorded 
that  they  were  added  to  the  nucleus  of  the  early 
Church. 

This  analysis  of  the  first  case  of  conversion 
to  Christianity  is  borne  out  by  every  other  case 
of  which  mention  is  made  in  the  book  of  Acts. 
The  Ethiopian  eunuch  hears  the  gospel  story  from 
Philip,  believes  it,  confesses  his  faith,  and  is  forth- 
with baptized  to  "  go  on  his  way  rejoicing."  The 
Philippian  jailer  believes  the  new  Gospel,  falls  on 
his  knees  before  Paul  and  Silas,  and  is  baptized 
"  the  same  hour  of  the  night."  Lydia,  a  seller  of 
purple  of  Thyatira,  hearing  the  message  of  Paul, 
opens  her  heart  to  it,  and  is  baptized  forthwith. 
Saul  of  Tarsus  himself,  notwithstanding  his  super- 


162  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

natural  vision,  is  no  exception  to  the  general  rule, 
for  after  his  confession  of  faith  in  Christ  on  the 
Damascus  highway,  he  too  repents  in  blindness  and 
solitude,  and  is  baptized  just  as  the  other  converts. 
Cornelius,  the  devout  Roman  centurion,  is  admitted 
to  the  Church  in  precisely  the  same  way  ;  and  when 
Philip  preached  to  the  inhabitants  of  Samaria,  as 
recorded  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  Acts,  it  is  stated 
that  after  they  believed  his  preaching  they  were 
baptized,  "  both  men  and  women." 

It  is  no  part  of  our  plan  in  what  is  stated  here  to 
attack  in  any  way  the  belief  of  those  who  see  a 
mystical  element  in  conversion,  nor  have  we  any 
impeachment  for  men  and  women  who  espouse 
the  essential  facts  of  vital  Christianity  through  any 
roundabout  process  whatever.  What  we  are  trying 
to  make  clear  is  the  fact  that  admission  to  the 
Church,  following  an  honest  acceptance  of  the 
Christ  ideal  of  life,  was  a  very  sunple  and  direct 
thing  in  the  Apostolic  days.  Why  it  should  not  be 
just  as  simple  now,  does  not  seem  apparent.  Why, 
when  a  man  believes  in  Christ  and  His  gospel  of 
life,  and  honestly  desires  to  serve  Him  and  human- 
ity through  Him,  he  should  not  be  baptized  and 
allowed  to  enter  the  Church,  does  not,  we  say, 
seem  apparent.  Obviously  such  a  man  would  have 
become  a  member  of  the  early  Christian  community 


CONVERSION  163 

in  the  shortest  possible  time,  and  in  the  simplest 
possible  way.  The  eunuch  was  a  man  like  this, 
and  his  conversion  is  typical  in  every  respect. 

To  sum  up,  then,  the  entire  subject  in  the  fewest 
possible  words  :  the  early  Christians  demanded  of 
every  convert  an  acceptance  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ 
— that  is,  as  the  Anointed  One  of  God,  this  belief 
carrying  with  it  an  acceptance,  of  course,  of  the 
Christ  ideal  of  life.  They  demanded  along  with 
this  profession  what  was  its  necessary  concomitant, 
an  honest  "  turning  away  "  from  the  old  life  of  sin 
and  evil  deeds  ;  and  last  of  all,  as  an  evidence  of 
overt  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  new  kingdom, 
they  required  the  convert  to  be  baptized.  When 
these  things  had  been  done,  the  new  Christian  came 
into  the  visible  Church,  and  strove  with  his 
brethren,  from  day  to  day,  to  "  walk  in  newness  of 
life." 

A  man  converted  in  the  way  just  described  may 
not  fulfill  all  of  the  special  requirements  of  every 
Christian  communion  to-day,  but  there  are  few 
communions  claiming  to  be  the  guardians  of  vital 
Christianity  which  will  not  acknowledge  such  a 
convert  as  being,  in  the  fullest  formal  sense  of  the 
term,  a  Christian. 


YI 
THE  CHUECH  UNIVEESAL 

THE  religion  of  Christ  has  had  a  strange 
and  checkered  history.  At  one  time 
uniting  both  formal  and  vital  elements  in 
their  native  purity,  it  swept  the  world  in  a  little 
over  two  centuries  of  triumphant  progress.  Then 
came  the  story  of  the  decadence  of  the  vital  and 
the  crystallization  of  the  formal  element  in  the 
darker  days  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Worst  of  all,  in  the 
minds  of  many,  the  formal  became  a  substitute  for 
the  vital,  and  people  came  to  believe  that  the  touch 
of  holy  water  on  the  body  could  cleanse  the  soul  still 
reeking  with  sin.  It  is  only  proper,  however,  to 
say  that  all  the  while,  much  vital  Christianity  re- 
mained in  the  world.  The  annals  of  all  time  may 
be  challenged  to  produce  a  more  beautiful  life  than 
that  of  Prancis  of  Assisi,  or  a  more  devout  career 
than  that  of  Thomas  a  Kempis  ;  while  in  the  life  of 
Savonarola,  one  catches  a  glimpse  of  a  reincarnated 
Isaiah  or  Elijah.  Those  who  imagine  that  the 
Middle  Ages  were  devoid  of  splendid  examples  of 
genuine  Christianity  are  by  no  means  familiar  with 

164 


THE  CHURCH  UNIVERSAL  155 

the  facts.  The  unfortunate  thing  about  mediaeval 
Christendom  was  the  dominance,  at  times,  of  the 
visible  Church,  at  least  at  its  centre,  by  false  ideals 
and  a  mistaken  concept  of  life. 

Then  came  the  days  of  the  Reformation,  with  its 
stirring  appeal  for  the  revival  of  the  moral  life  as 
constituting  the  heart  of  Christianity.  This  was  the 
burden  of  Luther's  appeal ;  it  was  also  back  of  the 
stentorian  blasts  of  Knox,  and  the  gentle  words  of 
Zwingli  and  Melancthon.  Too  often  the  reformers 
were  motived  by  some  of  the  baser  passions  in  their 
work,  too  often  they  persecuted  their  persecutors, 
and  in  other  ways  showed  that  they  were  by  no 
means  perfect  followers  of  their  Master  ;  and  yet, 
even  at  the  worst,  their  efforts  advanced  in  no 
slight  measure  the  concept  of  a  world-wide  Chris- 
tendom, embodying  more  fully  than  ever  before  the 
supreme  ideals  of  Christ.  In  this  world  movement, 
it  should  be  remembered  too  that  Francis  Xavier 
and  Loyola  had  a  part,  as  well  as  Calvin  and  Luther. 

It  was  necessary  that  the  Church  should  realize  the 
fundamental  significance  of  the  ideals  of  its  Master, 
and  that  vital  Christianity  should  regain  its  old 
place  in  the  hearts  of  men.  The  ideal  which 
needed  most  attention  was  the  ideal  of  freedom, 
and  the  world  is  to-day  only  beginning  to  realize 
the   immense  significance  of  this  principle.     The 


156  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

proper  place  to  be  given  vital  Christianity  is  pretty 
universally  understood  and  acknowledged  at  the 
present  time,  throughout  the  Christian  world.  The 
Christ  life  is  everywhere  conceded  to  be  the  end  of 
religion,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  all  sections  of 
Christendom  that  no  one  party  or  denomination 
has  a  monopoly  upon  good  men  or  good  women. 

Formal  Christianity  still  di\4des  the  visible  Church 
into  more  or  less  antagonistic  sections ;  but  these  sec- 
tions are  coming  closer  together,  and  in  the  Master's 
own  good  time,  will  all  be  fused  into  one.  It  was 
essential  that  the  Church  should  have  its  crude  unity 
broken  up  in  order  that  men  should  realize  to  the 
fullest  the  supreme  blessings  of  the  ideal  of  freedom. 
Now  that  freedom  has  been  gained,  and  all  Chris- 
tians everywhere  think  freely  upon  religion  and  are 
allowed  to  do  so,  with  comparatively  trifling  excep- 
tions ;  the  world  is  ready  for  the  larger  unity  which 
will  not  be  gained  at  the  cost  of  freedom,  but  which 
will  include  it  as  an  essential  element.  The  Church 
Universal  will  be  that  embodiment  of  formal 
religion  which,  ever  including  vital  Christianity 
as  its  content  and  goal,  will  guarantee  per- 
fect freedom  to  every  individual  Christian,  and  at 
the  same  time  unified  action  to  all.  It  will  be  such 
a  unity  as  mil  guarantee  the  fullest  liberty  to  the 
conscience  of  every  believer,  and  yet  eliminate  all 


THE  CHURCH  UNIVERSAL  157 

jealousy,  bickering  and  strife  between  Christians  of 
divergent  opinions.  Christendom  as  a  whole  is 
veering  rapidly  towards  this  point,  but  as  yet  is  not 
quite  up  to  the  goal. 

One  essential  still  to  be  realized  is  a  single  name 
for  all  the  hosts  of  Christ.  Divergent  names  create 
party  spirit,  and  party  spirit  engenders  strife.  Dif- 
ferent organizations,  rival  church  boards,  rival  pub- 
lishing houses  and  the  like,  work  to  the  same  end. 
Some  day  there  will  be  a  single  name,  with,  perhaps, 
for  a  while,  the  smaller  names  in  parenthesis,  as  is  the 
case  on  many  mission  fields,  a  single  representative 
board,  perchance  to  look  after  all  of  the  little  boards, 
and  such  a  unification  of  machinery  as  will  guarantee 
harmonious  action  and  effort.  This  unity  will  come 
not  from  the  top  but  from  the  bottom.  It  will  not 
be  imposed  upon  Christians  by  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties, but  Christians  anxious  and  eager  to  realize  the 
prayer  of  their  Master  will  compel  their  ecclesias- 
ticisms  to  accept  it.  This  unity  will  be  real,  vital 
and  spontaneous.  It  is  essential  to  the  conquest  of 
the  world  by  the  armies  of  Christ,  and  it  will  come. 
My  opposition  or  your  opposition  may  retard  but 
will  not  prevent  it.  As  Christians  have  won 
freedom,  so  they  will  wdn  unity.  And  that  unity 
will  be  the  unity  not  of  a  great  ecclesiasticism,  but 
of  a  living  Church ;  not  of  unwillingness  or  force  or 


158  FORMAL  CHRISTIANITY 

tyranny,  but  of  freedom,  of  joy  and  of  love.  The 
Church  of  Christ,  Universal,  must  come ;  and  it  will 
come.  We  have  it  in  our  power  to  hasten  its  com- 
ing or  to  throw  stumbling-blocks  in  its  progress. 
Fichte,  in  his  "  Doctrine  of  Religion,"  a  hundred 
years  ago,  wrote  these  eloquent  words : 

" .  .  .  Hadst  thou  done  the  like  deed  in  holy 
indignation  that  the  Son  of  Eternity  should  be  tor- 
mented by  such  vanities  as  these,  and  should  be 
left  there  so  forsaken  by  his  f eUow  men  : — with  the 
desire  that  he  might  have  at  least  one  glad  hour  in 
which  he  might  raise  his  eyes  joyfully  and  thank- 
fully to  heaven,  with  the  purpose  that  in  thy  hand 
he  might  see  the  saving  hand  of  God  and  might 
know  of  a  surety  that  the  arm  of  God  is  not  yet 
shortened,  but  that  he  has  everywhere  instruments 
and  servants  to  do  His  will  .  .  .  then  had  thy 
deed  been  the  outward  expression  of  a  moral 
religious  spirit." 

Fichte's  vision  of  the  Son  of  Eternity  ought  to 
be  our  vision  of  the  Son  of  Man.  He  has  left  in 
our  hands  the  matter  of  accomplishing  or  failing  to 
accomplish  His  will.  It  is  for  us  to  bring  sorrow 
to  His  great  heart  of  love,  or  joy  to  His  soul,  the 
true  soul  of  the  world.  Perhaps  we,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  are  retarding  the  fulfillment  of  His 
great  desire,  the  union  of  His  followers.     Surely  to 


THE  CHURCH  UNIVERSAL  159 

do  so  is  to  crucify  Him  anew,  and  to  put  Him  to  an 
open  sliame  before  the  world.  May  all  who  profess 
the  religion  of  Christ  meditate  again  and  again 
upon  His  words : 

"  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them 
also  which  shall  believe  on  Me  through  theu'  word ; 
that  they  all  may  be  one  ;  as  Thou,  Father,  art  in 
Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  Us ; 
that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me." 


Appendix 

General  Note. 

The  material  contained  in  this  appendix  in- 
cludes data  which  has  been  used  in  classroom 
lectures,  outlines,  source  material,  and  other  in- 
formation of  interest  to  the  student  rather  than 
to  the  general  reader. 

The  Scripture  references  have  been  selected 
with  especial  care,  and  represent  the  author's 
authority  for  his  conclusions  in  regard  to  the 
ethics  of  Jesus  as  well  as  for  other  positions 
taken  in  the  body  of  the  volume.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  add  that  the  author  does  not  pre- 
sume to  endorse,  in  their  entirety,  many  of  the 
reference-books  appended  as  suggestive  reading 
in  connection  with  the  outlines  which  follow. 

Critical  questions  are  not  touched  upon  be- 
cause it  is  the  conviction  of  the  writer  that  the 
personality  of  Jesus,  and  the  essential  facts  of 
his  religion,  are  not  seriously  affected  one  way 
or  the  other  by  the  results  of  modern  criticism. 
The  religion  of  Christ  is  a  living  thing  to-day — 
a  thing  the  existence  of  which  can  no  more  be 
disputed  than  it  is  possible  to  dispute  the  actu- 
ality of  the  sun,  the  moon  or  the  stars.  It  is 
redefinition  and  scrutiny  of  this  undisputed  fact 
which  constitutes  the  basis  of  our  study. 

161 


162  APPENDIX 

PART  I. 

Study   Outlines   Covering   Chapters   I.,   II. 
AND  III. 

I.  The    Development    of    the    Religious    Consciousness 
IN  THE  World. 

1.  The  law   of  development   in  the   universe   as   regards 

both  Individual  and  Race. 

(1)  The  individual.  Examples  from  infancy,  childhood, 
adolescence. 

(2)  The  race,  (a)  The  family;  (6)  the  tribe  or  clan; 
(c)  transition  to  the  state;  (d)  external  pow^r 
as  embodied  in  a  monarchy;  (e)  internal  freedom 
as  embodied  in  the  free  state;  (/)  after  the  free 
state — what? 

2.  The  law  of  development  as  applied  to  religion. 

(1)  The  patriarchal  period. 

(2)  State  religions. 

(3)  Ethnic  religions  based  upon  external  forms, 
(a)   Babylon;    (&)    Egypt;    (c)   Judea;    (d)   Greece. 

(4)  Cosmopolitanism  in  religion  based  upon  freedom 
of  conscience  for  the  individual. 

3.  Christ,  the  center  of  world  history,  marking  the  ado- 

lescence of  the  race. 

II.  Hebrew  History  as  Illustrating  Religious  Develop- 
ment. 

1.  The  patriarchal  period. 

(1)  Priests  of  the  family — Abram,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Mel- 
chizedek, 

2.  The  transition  to  external  law. 

(1)  Moses  and  Sinai. 

(2)  The  Judges. 

(3)  Evolution  into  monarchy. 

3.  The  period  of  external  law. 
(1)  The  kingdom. 


APPENDIX  163 

(2)  Temple  worship  of  David  and  Solomon. 

(3)  Idolatry  of  later  kings. 

4.  Transition  to  internal  law. 

(1)  The  prophets — Elijah,  Elisha,  Malachi. 

(2)  The  Messianic  predictions — Psalms  23,  2,  etc.; 
Isaiah  53,  and  elsewhere. 

5.  The  Messianic  period. 

(1)  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount — "Not  to  destroy,  but 
to  fulfil." 

(2)  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

(3)  John  1:  17— key-text. 

6.  Types  and  antitypes  in  Jewish  history. 

7.  The  significance  of  the  Old  Testament. 

III.  Adolescence  of  the  World  Consciousness  in  Christ. 

1.  The  world  consciousness — figurative  use  of  the  term. 

2.  Point  of  departure — the  discovery  of  the  individual. 

(1)  The  individual  in  Greek  and  Roman  thought. 

(2)  The  individual  in  Christ's  teaching. 

3.  Soul  values  internal  rather  than  external. 

4.  The  testimony  of  church  history. 

(1)  Roman  Catholicism,  (a)  Growth  of  external  cere- 
monies borrowed  from  Jewish  and  heathen  rites; 
(&)  ceremonialism  as  related  to  atheism — Leo  X., 
Taine's  comment;  (c)  ceremonialism  as  related  to 
immorality — Alexander  VI.  and  Caesar  Borgia. 

(2)  The  Protestant  Reformation,  (a)  Luther  in  Rome; 
(&)  Tetzel  and  indulgences. 

(3)  The  counter  Reformation,  (a)  Savonarola;  (&) 
Loyola. 

5.  Modern  progress  due  to  the  unfolding  of  essential  prin- 

ciples of  Christianity. 

IV.  Christianity  a  Religion  of  Ideals  and  Not  a  Code 

OF  Laws. 

1.  Childhood  and  positive  statute. 

2.  Religions  of  statute. 
(1)  Judaism. 


164  APPENDIX 

(2)  Mohammedanism. 

3,  Religions  of  ideals. 

(1)  Buddhism. 

(2)  Confucianism. 

(3)  Stoicism. 

4.  Jesus  as  a  formulator  of  ideals. 

(1)  Compare  with  Buddha;  Confucius;  Socrates. 
5    Example  versus  precept. 

6.  Christianity  a  system  of  ethical  ideals,  embodied  in  a 

great  personality. 

7.  Hero-worship:  Its  value. 

Reference  Books  for  Part  I. 

"Ethical  Principles,"  Seth;  "History  of  Ancient  Re- 
ligions," Rawlinson;  "The  Evolution  of  Religion,"  Caird; 
"Fetichism,"  Schultze;  "Orpheus,"  Reinach;  "Can  We 
Still  Be  Christians?"  Eucken;  "Creative  Evolution,"  Berg- 
son;  "The  Realm  of  Ends,"  Ward;  "Outlines  of  Christian 
Theology,"  Clarke;  "The  Ascent  of  Man,"  Drummond;  "Old 
Pictures  in  Florence:  The  Bishop  Orders  His  Tomb  at 
St.  Praxed's,"  Robert  Browning;  "The  Gospel  and  the 
Church,"  Loisy;  "Religions  of  Authority  and  the  Religion 
of  the  Spirit,"  Sabatier;  "History  of  English  Literature" 
(chapter  on  the  Pagan  Renaissance),  Taine. 

PART  11. 
Outlines  Covering  Chapter  I. 

I.  The  Nature  of  Christian  Ideals. 

1.  Sources  of  information. 

(1)  Bible. 

(2)  Sacred  literature. 

(3)  Christian  biography. 

2.  The  ideals  of  Jesus. 

(1)  Righteousness — the  personal  goal. 

(2)  Service — the  social  goal. 

(3)  Freedom — the  comprehensive  goal. 


APPENDIX  165 

3.  Righteousness. 

(1)  Humility. 

(2)  Duty. 

(3)  Kindness. 

(4)  Industry. 

(5)  Truthfulness. 

(6)  Chastity. 

(7)  Good  citizenship. 

(8)  Honesty. 

(9)  Temperance. 

4.  Only  an  approximate  analysis. 

5.  Two  errors. 

(1)  Substitution  of  religious  forms  for  ideals. 

(2)  Substitution  of  mistaken  ideals  for  true  ones. 

6.  The  negative  value  of  the  ideals.     (Romanes.) 

7.  The  unique  embodiment  of  these  ideals  in  Jesus  himself, 
8    The  new  elements — passive  virtues. 

Referexces. 

Matthew  5-7;  "Ecce  Homo"  (Chap.  XHI.),  Seeley; 
"Ethics  of  Jesus"  (Chaps.  V.-VIL),  King;  "The  Church's 
One  Foundation"  (Chap.  V.),  Nicol. 

n.  Humility. 

1.  The  basic  virtue. 

2.  Contrast  with  Greek  and  Roman  culture. 

3.  Views  of  modern  biologists. 

4.  The  teaching  of  Nietzsche. 

5.  The  confirmation  of  science. 

6.  Contradictions  in  religious  history. 

7.  Practical  application. 

Texts. 

Matt.  5:  3,  5;  18:  1-6;  20:  20-28;  21:  4,  5;  Mark  9:  33- 
37;    10:  13-16,  35-45;   Luke  9:  46-48;    10:  21;    18:  9-17. 

Referexces. 

"Nietzsche,"  Mencken;  "The  Evolution  of  Man," 
Haeckel;   "Discourse^"  Epictetus;    "Meditations,"  Marcus 


166  APPENDIX 

Aurelius;    Articles  on  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in  the  encyclo- 
pedias. 

III.  Duty:  The  Keynote  of  Life. 

1.  Duty  defined. 

2  The  categorical  imperative. 

3  The  idea  of  a  "calling." 
4.  A  purposeful  universe. 

Schopenhauer,  Nietzsche,  Bergson. 
5    The  reality  of  the  ideal. 

6.  The  meaning  of  success.  ' 

7.  Duty  and  love  as  motives. 

8.  The  life  of  Jesus  the  perfect  realization  of  an  absolute 

standard. 

9.  Duty  in  history. 

(1)  Luther. 

(2)  Knox. 

(3)  John  the  Baptist. 

References. 

The  life  of  Christ:  Childhood  (Luke  2:  49) ;  early  min- 
istry (Matt.  3:  15);  first  miracle  (John  2:  4);  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  (Matt.  5:6;  6:24,  33);  raising  of  Lazarus 
(John  11:  8-16) ;  steadfastness  in  his  course  (Mark  10:  32, 
34;  Luke  9:  51);  on  the  cross  (John  19:  30). 

Paul:  Acts  20:  24;  1  Tim.  6:  12;  2  Tim.  2:  15;  4:  17; 
salutation  to  Epistles,  "called  to  be  an  apostle,"  etc. 

Literature. 

"The  Discourses  of  Epictetus;"  "Marcus  Aurelius;" 
"Critique  of  Practical  Reason,"  Kant;  "Ethics  of  the  Scot- 
tish School;"  "Life  of  Cato  the  Younger,"  Plutarch;  "Ode 
to  Duty,"  Wordsworth;  "Julius  Csesar"  (character  of 
Brutus),  Shakespeare;  "Duty  Surviving  Self-love,"  Cole- 
ridge; "Epistle  to  a  Young  Friend,"  Burns;  "The  Realm 
of  Ends,"  James  Ward. 


APPENDIX  167 


IV.    KlNDJvESS. 

1    The  cruelty  of  nature. 

Huxley,  Darwin,  Schopenhauer. 

2.  The  cruelty  of  man. 

Law.    Religion.     Inquisition. 

3.  The  cruelty  of  religion. 

(1)  Future  punishment. 

(2)  Mythology  and  Christianity. 

(3)  The  real  Inferno. 

4.  The  ideal  and  experience  of  Christ. 

5.  Cruelty  in  the  name  of  Christ. 

6.  Reforms  of  the  present  day. 

(1)  Prisons. 

(2)  Capital  punishment. 

7.  Sins  condemned. 

(1)  Personal,    (a)  111  temper;   (&)  cruelty;   (c)  revenge. 

(2)  Social,     (a)  Envy;    (&)  hatred;    (c)  slander. 

(3)  National,     (a)   Slavery;    (&)  murder;    (c)  war. 

Texts. 

Matt.  5:  7,  9,  22;  6:  12;  7:  1,  12;  11:  28;  12:  18-20; 
18:  10-35;  20:  34;  Mark  1:  4;  9:  38,  39;  11:  25;  Luke  4:  18, 
19;  7:  47;  15:  1-32;  17:  4;  23:  34-43;  John  3:  16;  13:  34; 
Eph.  4:  32;  1  Corinthians  13;  1  John  3  and  4. 

Refere>'ces. 

"Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  Law,"  Hopkins;  "Ad- 
dresses," Drummond;  "Sermons,"  Edwards;  "Divine 
Comedy,"  Dante;  "Man  Was  Made  to  Mourn,"  Burns; 
"Sermons,"  Beecher. 

V.  Kindness  (continued). 
(The  Doctrine  of  Non-resistance.) 

Three  theories: 

1.  Theoretically  and  practically  valid — St.  Francis,   Fox, 

Tolstoi. 

2.  Theoretically   valid   and   practically   invalid — majority 

of  Christians. 


168  APPENDIX 

3.  Theoretically  and  practically  invalid — Professor  Foster. 
4:  Solution — Sermon  on  the  Mount  a  collection  of  ideals, 
and  not  a  code  of  laws. 

Texts. 

Matt.  5:  38-48;  26:  50-52;  27:  40-44;  Mark  15:  32;  Luke 
18:  34. 

References. 

"Life  of  St.  Francis,"  Sabatier;  "The  Little  Flowers 
of  St.  Francis;"  "My  Confession,"  Tolstoi;  "My  Religion," 
Tolstoi;  "The  Gospel  in  Brief,"  Tolstoi;  "Journal  of  George 
Fox;"  "Milman's  History  of  Latin"  ("Christianity" — Book 
IX.) ;  "The  Finality  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  Foster. 

VI.  Industry. 

1.  Industry  the  first  law  of  God. 

2.  Teaching  of  modern  philosophy — Schopenhauer,  Berg- 

son. 

3.  The  old  definition  of  a  gentleman. 

4.  Christ's  sympathy  with  the  workers. 

5.  Labor  organizations  and  the  church. 

6.  The  apostolic  point  of  view. 

7.  Laziness  in  pulpit  and  pew. 

8.  The  Middle  Age  monk. 

Texts. 

Matt.  7:  7,  21,  24-27;  25:  14-30;  Mark  4:  25;  Luke 
6:  46;  8:  18;  19:  11-27;  John  5:  17;  7:  17;  9:  4;  1  Thess. 
4:  11;  2  Thess.  3:  7-12;  Eph.  4:  28;  1  Cor.  4:  12. 

References. 

"The  Quest  of  Happiness,"  Hillis;  "Jesus  Christ  and 
the  Christian  Character,"  Peabody;  "The  Sons  of  Martha," 
Kipling;  "Faust,"  Goethe;  "Rabbi  Ben  Ezra,"  R.  Browning. 

VII.  Truthfulness. 

1.  The  question  of  abstract  truth. 

(1)   Psychological — correspondence  of  an  idea  with  its 
object   (Kant). 


APPENDIX  169 

(2)  Metaphysical — the  ultimate  goal  of  reason. 

(3)  Mystical — the  unknown  source  of  genius. 

2  The  practical  problem. 

(1)  Exaggeration. 

(2)  Equivocation. 

(3)  Hypocrisy. 

3  Is  a  lie  ever  justifiable? 

4.  Scientific  devotion  to  truth. 

5.  The  business  and  social  value  of  truthfulness. 

6.  The  Jesuit  policy. 

7.  Truthfulness  and  discretion. 

Texts. 

Matt.  19:  18;  23:  13-29;  1  John  1:  6-10;  3  John  1,  3,  4, 
8;  John  1:  17;  8:  44-46;  17:  19;  18:  37,  38;  Rev.  21:  8,  27; 
22:  15. 

References. 

"Truth,"  Bacon's  Essays;  "The  Marks  of  a  Man," 
Speer;  "Is  a  Lie  Ever  Justifiable?"  Trumbull;  "Imago 
Christi"  (Chap.  XV.) — "Christ  as  a  Controversialist;" 
"Life  and  Letters  of  Huxley"   (Vol.  III.). 

VIII.  Personal  Purity.     The  Home  Ideal — Preservation 
AND  Loss. 

1.  Purity  of  heart  central  in  Christ's  moral  code. 

2.  The  vital  factor  in  personal  purity,  a  high  home  ideal. 

3.  Falsity  of  the  celibate  ideal— Creed  of  Council  of  Trent. 

4.  The  Christian  home — fundamental  essentials. 

(1)  Absolute  confidence. 

(2)  Mutual  sympathy. 

(3)  Mutual  forbearance. 

(4)  Mutual  respect. 

(5)  Justice. 

5.  Christ's  attitude  toward  marriage. 

(1)  At  Cana. 

(2)  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

(3)  The  question  of  the  Pharisees — Mark  10. 


170  APPENDIX 

(4)   The  question  of  the  Sadducees — Matthew  22. 

6.  The  attitude  of  the  apostles. 

(1)  Peter— Mark  1:  30;  1  Cor.  9:  5. 

(2)  John— Rev.  22:  17. 

(3)  Paul— 1  Cor.  9:  5,  7. 

(4)  Heb.  13:  4. 

7.  The  modern  eugenic  movement. 

8    Clean  thought,  speech  and  action. 

Texts. 

Matt.   5:  8,    27-32;    Mark   10:  2-12,   14:    1   Cor.    6:  9-20; 
Gal.  5:  19;  Eph.  5:3-5;  John  2:  1-11. 

References. 

"The   Marks   of  a  Man"    (Chap.    II.),   Speer;    Modern 
Texts  on  Eugenics;  The  Sylvanus  Stall  Series. 

IX.  Mabriage. 

1.  The  origin  of  marriage. 
2    Primitive  marital  customs. 

3.  Marriage  ideals  of  Greeks. 

4.  Marriage  ideals  of  Romans. 

5.  Marriage  ideals  of  Jews. 
6    The  Christian  ideal. 

(1)  Christ. 

(2)  Paul. 

7.  Non-Christian  ideals  of  the  present. 

(1)  The  French  ideal. 

(2)  Materialistic  Socialism. 

8.  The  sins  of  development. 

(1)  Monogamy  for  polygamy. 

(2)  The  indissoluble  ideal. 

(3)  The  spiritualization  of  the  relation. 

(4)  The  higher  dignity  given  to  womanhood. 

(5)  Added  emphasis  upon  the  home. 

9.  Celibacy  and  Christianity. 


APPENDIX  171 

Texts. 

John  2:  1-11;  Mark  10:  6-9.  Paul:  1  Cor.  9:  9;  7;  Heb. 
10:  4;  Rev.  20:  12. 

References. 

"Gesta  Christi"  (Chap.  III.);  "History  of  European 
Morals,"  Lecky;  "History  of  Human  Marriage"  (1891), 
Westermarck;  "History  of  Matrimonial  Institutions" 
(1904),  Howard;  "Golden  Bough"  (1890,  1900),  Frazer. 

X.    DiVOBCE. 

1.  Origin  of  divorce. 

2.  The  Eastern  nations. 

3  The  Greeks.     Athens — divorce  to  either  party  upon  ap- 

plication.   Harder  for  women. 

4  The   Romans — free   to   both   parties.     Women   counted 

years  by  husbands. 

5  Jews — man's  privilege  alone. 
6.  The  teaching  of  Christ. 

(1)  Divorce. 

(2)  Remarriage. 

7    The  teaching  of  Paul. 

Corinthian  church. 
8.  The  mediaeval  point  of  view. 

Charlemagne  and  the  Papal  bull. 

Henry  VIII. 
9    Modern  divorce. 

(1)  France. 

(2)  England. 

(3)  America. 
Separate  State  laws. 

10.  The  church  attitude  to-day. 

11.  Progress. 

(1)   Lessening  of  divorces. 
"     (2)   Man  and  woman  on  equal  terms. 

(3)  Higher  ideals  of  marriage. 

(4)  Christianity  guards  marriage  rather  than  divorce. 


172  APPENDIX 

Texts. 

Matt.  5:  31,  32;  19:  3-11;  Mark  10:  2-12;  Luke  16:  18; 
Rom.  7:  1-4;  1  Cor.  7:  10,  11. 

Reference. 

"The  History  of  Divorce  and  Remarriage,"  Wilkins. 

XI.  The  Home  Ideal  (concluded). 

1.  Marital  unfaithfulness. 

(1)  Ancient  viewpoint — Greeks,  Romans,  Hebrews. 

(2)  The  Biblical  teaching. 

(3)  The  modern  world — France,  Austria. 

2.  Destructive  literature. 

(1)  The  problem  novel. 

(2)  Magazine  slush. 

(3)  The  might  have  been  in  literature. 

3.  The  influence  of  art,  the  drama,  dress,  customs,  etc. 

(1)  Art — the  nude  in  art. 

(2)  Drama — cheap  plays. 

(3)  Dress — Tolstoi's  criticism. 

(4)  Customs — dancing. 

4.  The  home  life — parent  and  child. 

(1)  Duties  of  the  parent,  (a)  Preservation;    (b)  educa- 
tion;   (c)  inspiration. 

(2)  Duties  of  the   child,      (a)    Docility;    (&)    respect; 
(c)  loyalty. 

5.  Duty  and  love  in  the  home. 

Texts. 

Matt.  5:  27,  28;  15:  19;  29:  18;  John  8:  1-11;  Rev.  20: 
8;  22:  15.  Divorce:  Matt.  5:  31;  19:  3-12;  10:  2-12;  Luke 
16:  18;  Deut.  24:  1;  Gen.  1:  27;  2  :24;  Eph.  5:  31;  1  Cor. 
7:  10,  11. 

References. 

"The  History  of  Divorce  and  Remarriage,"  Wilkins; 
"Love  and  Marriage;  Love  and  Ethics,"  Ellen  Key;  "The 
Lady  and  the  Painter;"  concluding  paragraphs  of  "The 


APPENDIX  173 

Ring  and  the  Book,"  Robert  Browning;   "What  Is  Art?" 
(Chaps.  IX.  and  XVII.),  Tolstoi. 

XII.  Good  Citizenship. 

1.  The  ideal  of  citizenship. 

2.  Christ's  attitude  toward  law  and  order. 

3.  Attitude  of  the  early  church. 

4.  Christ's  attitude  toward  governmental  problems. 

(1)  Anarchism. 

(2)  Socialism. 

5  The  attitude  of  the  Christian  toward 

(1)  Mob  law. 

(2)  Municipal  corruption. 

(3)  Debauchery  of  the  ballot. 

6  Christianity  and  politics. 

(1)  Voting. 

(2)  Bearing  arms. 

(3)  Office-holding. 

Texts. 

Matt.  17:  24-27;  22:  15-22;  Rom.  13:  1-7;  1  Pet.  2:  13-17. 

References. 

Plato  (especially  "The  Republic");  "The  City  of  God," 
St.  Augustine;  the  writings  of  Fox  and  Tolstoi;  lectures 
and  sermons  of  Beecher. 

'  XIII.  Honesty. 

1.  The  idea  of  property. 

Legal  definition — personality. 
2    Property  rights  among  the  Jews — Ten  Commandments. 
3.  Christ's  attitude  toward  property. 

(1)  Rich  young  ruler. 

(2)  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

(3)  The  rich  fool. 

(4)  Rich  man  and  Lazarus. 
4    Attitude  of  early  church. 

(1)  Barnabas. 

(2)  Ananias  and  Sapphira. 


174  APPENDIX 

5.  Christianity  and  business. 

(1)  Business  ethics  and  the  preacher. 

(2)  The  problem  of  debt. 

(3)  Ministerial  mendicancy. 

6.  The  modern  worship  of  money. 
Reaction  to-day. 

Long,  Carnegie,  Rockefeller. 

7.  Two  guiding  principles  to  guarantee  honesty. 

(1)  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

(2)  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul? 

Texts. 

Matt.  6:  25-34;  10:  9,  10;  13:  22;  15:  19;  19:  18,  23; 
21:13;  Luke  16:1-5,  19-31;  Mark  7:22,  23;  Acts  2:43- 
47;  Luke  12:  13-21;  Acts  4:  32-37;  Rom.  12:  17;  13:  8-10. 

XIV.  Temperance. 

1.  Meaning  of  word. 

2.  Virtue  among  Greeks. 

3.  Narrowed  definition  to-day. 

4.  Temperance  and  abstinence. 

5.  The  liquor  question. 

6.  Drug  habits. 

7.  The  law  of  liberty. 

8.  The  law  of  liberty  and  the  law  of  service. 

Texts. 

Matt.  10:  8;  29:  48-50;  Mark  7:  1-23;  Luke  15:  13,  14; 
16:  19;  Rom.  12:  1,  2,  14;  1  Corinthians  8  and  9;  Gal.  5: 
16-24;  Phil.  4:  8. 

References. 

"The  Marks  of  a  Man,"  Speer;  "Those  "Who  Have  Come 
Back,"  Macfarlane;  "Twice-born  Men,"  Begbie;  "Drink," 
Zola;  "Lectures,"  Gough. 

NOTES    ON    CHAPTER    IL 

The  problem  of  the  social  ideal  of  Jesus  looms  so  large 
on  the  horizon  of  present-day  Christianity  that  it  would 


APPENDIX  175 

require  a  volume  to  even  approximate  an  adequate  treat- 
ment. Instead  of  essaying  this  task,  we  prefer  to  suggest 
some  of  the  best  literature  of  the  day,  leaving  the  student 
to  work  out  his  own  material  from  the  volumes  recom- 
mended. 

Perhaps  the  sanest  treatment  from  the  modern  point 
of  view  is  that  of  Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  of 
Rochester  University,  whose  two  volumes,  "Christianity 
and  the  Social  Crisis"  and  "Christianizing  the  Social 
Order,"  leave  little  to  be  desired,  at  least  as  we  view  the 
question. 

The  radical  standpoint  is  presented  in  such  volumes 
as  Bouck  White's  "The  Call  of  the  Carpenter"  and  "Let- 
ters of  the  Social  Revolution." 

The  more  conservative  side  is  presented  in  W.  M. 
Clow's  "Christ  in  the  Social  Order,"  and  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  writings,  such  as  those  of  Professor  Ryan  and  of 
Father  Vaughan. 

Good  books  to  read  on  the  subject  in  general  are  the 
following:  "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  Pea- 
body;  "Religion  in  Social  Action,"  Graham  Taylor;  "The 
Social  Creed  of  the  Churches,"  Ward;  "Spiritual  Culture 
and  Social  Service,"  Macfarland;  "Social  Psychology," 
MacDougall;  "The  Ethics  of  Jesus  and  Social  Progress," 
Gardner;  also  the  works  of  Jane  Addams,  Shailer  Math- 
ews and  of  Professors  Batten  and  Vedder. 

NOTES    ON    CHAPTER    III. 
I.  The  Principle  of  Freedom. 

1.  Definition  of  freedom. 

2.  National  freedom. 

3.  Personal  freedom. 

4.  Christianity  and  slavery. 

5.  The  caste  spirit. 

6.  Catholicism  and  freedom. 

7    Protestantism  and  freedom. 

8.  Martyrs  to  freedom. 

9.  Freedom  and  the  early  church. 


176  APPENDIX 

10.  Kinds  of  freedom. 

(1)  Moral. 

(2)  Intellectual. 

(3)  Physical. 

(4)  Metaphysical. 

(5)  Economic. 

Texts. 

Mark  7;  John  8:  32-36;  the  Epistle  to  Philemon;  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians;  Luke  4:  16-30. 

References. 

John  Stuart  Mill  on  Liberty;  "Essay  on  Liberty," 
Hobbes;  "Essays,"  Mazzini;  "Ethics,"  Aristotle;  "The 
Growth  of  Freedom,"  Nevinson;  "Philosophy  of  History," 
Hegel;   "Gesta  Christi,"  Brace. 

II.  Moral  Freedom. 

1.  Definition  of  the  term. 

2    No  metaphysical  principle  directly  asserted. 

3.  Christianity,  being  a  moral  religion,  must  have  a  moral 

basis. 

4.  Christ  always  assumed  the  principle  of  human  respon- 

sibility. 

5.  The  early  Christians  preached  the  doctrine  of  universal 

accountability. 

(1)  Apparent  contradiction  in  Paul. 

(2)  The  "whosoevers"  of  the  Gospel. 

Texts. 

Matt.  11:  28;  28:  19;  John  3:  16;  Rom.  10:  11;  Rev. 
22:  17. 

References. 

"An  Inquiry  into  the  Freedom  of  the  Will,"  Jonathan 
Edwards;  "The  Will  to  Believe,"  William  James;  "The 
Realm  of  Ends,"  Ward;  "The  Conception  of  God,"  and 
"The  World  and  the  Individual,"  Royce. 


APPENDIX  177 

III.  Freedom  of  Thought. 

General  Text. — "Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free." — John  8:  32. 
1    The  last  phase. 

2.  The  part  played  by  dogmatic  Christianity. 

3.  "Freethinking,"  so  called,  and  Christianity. 

4.  Modernism  and  higher  criticism. 

5.  The  scientific  spirit  and  modern  Christianity. 

6    "Belief,"  as  Christ  used  the  term,  not  an  intellectual 

clamp,  but  simply  a  moral  acquiescence. 
7.  The  passing  of  creeds. 

Texts. 

All  texts  dealing  with  the  binding  power  of  the  law 
in  the  old  dispensation  and  freedom  from  it  in  the  new; 
Mark  7:  3,  etc.;   Rom.  7:  4;   Gal.  2:  4;   John  1:  17;   7:  34. 

IV.  Limitations  of  Feeedom. 

1  Thought  and  action:  their  relation. 

2  Free  thought  and  thoughtless  action. 

3  Relation  of  the  right  philosophy  to  the  right  life. 
4.  The  failure  of  philosophic  creeds. 

(1)  An  ultimate  philosophy  unintelligible  at  present. 

(2)  A  present-day  philosophy  will  be  outgrown  in  the 
future. 

5  The  attitude  of  science  toward  Christianity. 

(1)  The  evolutionary  school,    (a)  Huxley;   (&)  Spencer; 
(c)  Clifford  ;id)  Tyndall. 

(2)  Latter-day  students,     (a)  Kelvin;   (&)  Ramsay;   (c) 
Romanes. 

6  Esthetic  and  volitional  elements  a  part  of  life  as  well 

as  the  intellectual. 

7.  Agnosticism  and  intellectual  freedom. 

8.  Freedom  of  thought  and  the  Infinite. 

References. 

"Defense  of  Philosophic  Doubt"  and  "The  Founda- 
tions of  Belief,"  Balfour;  "The  Dawn  of  a  New  Religious 
Era,"  Carus. 


178  APPENDIX 

NOTES    ON    CHAPTERS    IV.,    V.    AND    VI. 
I.  Nature  and  Importance  of  the  Problem. 

1.  The  non-miraculous  type  of  Christianity. 

2.  Can  such  a  type  be  reconciled  to  the  New  Testament? 

3.  Relative  value  of  the  now  and  the  hereafter. 

4.  Bearing  of  the  former  upon  the  latter. 

5.  Religion  versus  ethics  in  life. 

6.  Christ  differentiated  from  other  great  teachers  here. 

(1)  Socrates. 

(2)  Zeno. 

(3)  Confucius. 

(4)  Zoroaster. 

Texts. 

1  Corinthians  14;  John  3:  15,  16;  4:1;  Matt.  13:  36- 
43;  10:  28;  1  Pet.  1:  4,  5;  John  6. 

References. 

"The  Christian  Hope,"  Brown;  "The  Miraculous  Ele- 
ment in  the  Gospels,"  Bruce;  "Psychical  Research  and  the 
Resurrection,"  Hyslop. 

II.  The  Mystical  Basis  of  Christianity. 

1.  Definition  of  terms. 

(1)  Mystical,      (a)     Immediate;     (&)     Personal;     (c) 
Ecstatic  and  emotional. 

(2)  Supernatural,      (a)    Miraculous;     (&)    Mechanical; 
(c)  Formal. 

(3)  Spiritual,     (a)     Scientific;     (b)     Immanent;     (c) 
Philosophic. 

2.  Distinction  from  the  ethical  basis. 
Contrast  Voltaire. 

3.  Necessity  of  the  mystical  or  supernatural  for  religion. 

(1)  Eucken. 

(2)  James. 

(3)  The  idea  of  God. 

4   Relation  to  literature  and  art. 
Burroughs,  Plato,  Hegel. 


APPENDIX  179 

5    The  subject  in  historical  religion. 
The  old  mysteries. 
Christianity  and  positivism. 

Referexces. 

"Christian  Mysticism,"  Dr.  W.  R.  Inge  (Bampton  Lec- 
tures) ;  "The  Mystical  Element  of  Religion,"  Baron  von 
Hugel;  "Mysticism,"  Evelyn  Underhill;  "Mysticism  in 
Christianity,"  W.  K.  Fleming;  Works  of  Plotinus,  St. 
Barnard,  St.  Francis,  Madame  Guyon,  J.  Boehme,  John 
Bunyan  and  George  Fox;  "The  Rod,  the  Root  and  the 
Flower,"  Coventry  Patmore. 

III.  Jesus  and  the  Supernatural. 

1.  Place  which  it  occupies  in  his  life. 

(1)  Birth. 

(2)  Miracles. 

(3)  Prayer. 

(4)  Resurrection. 

2.  Place  in  his  teachings. 

(1)  Fatherhood  of  God. 

(2)  Kingdom  of  heaven. 

(3)  The  non-materiality  of  his  sermons. 

3  His  philosophy  of  life. 

(1)  The  practical  element. 

(2)  The  conscious  basis. 

(3)  Unity  with  God. 

4  The  Holy  Spirit. 

5  Special  instances. 

(1)  The  temptation. 

(2)  The  transfiguration. 

Texts. 

Matt.  4:  19,  20;  6:  25-32;  11:  25-27;  12:  39-42;  22:  23- 
33;  Luke  16:  19-31;  9:  28-36;  John  5:  17-29;  4:  23-26;  8: 
23-29;  14:  9-13;  15:  9,  10;  17:  3. 


180  APPENDIX 

IV.  The  Reality  of  the  Spiritual  Life. 

1,  The  philosophy  of  the  New  Testament. 

2  Idealism  defined. 
Matter  versus  spirit. 

3  Jesus  a  pronounced  idealists 

4  The  ivorld  and  the  kingdom. 

5  The  function  of  will  in  philosophy  and  religion. 

6  Immanence  and  transcendence  in  Christianity. 
7.  Evolution  and  Christianity. 

The  ape  and  the  tiger. 
Animal  and  spiritual. 

Texts. 

2  Cor.  4:  17,  18;  5:  1-6;  Matt.  6:  19,  20;  John  8:  58; 
4:24;  Phil.  3:20,  21;  Heb.  13:14;  Rev.  22:1-5;  Rom. 
14:  6-11. 

References. 

"Christianity  and  the  New  Idealism;"  "The  Truth  of 
Religion;"  "Religion  and  Life,"  Eucken;  "Rabbi  ben  Ezra," 
Browning;   "The  Will  to  Believe,"  James. 

V.  The  Resurrection. 

1.  The  resurrection  the  crux  of  Christianity. 
Paul's  testimony. 

2.  The  fact  of  miracle  staked  upon  it. 

3.  Testimony  to  the  resurrection. 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  John,  Paul. 
The  appearances: 

Sunday — 

(1)  Mary  Magdalene. 

(2)  Other  women. 

(3)  Peter. 

(4)  Emmaus. 

(5)  Disciples,  Thomas  absent. 

(6)  Disciples,  with  Thomas. 

(7)  Seven  disciples — Tiberias. 

(8)  Mountain  in  Galilee. 

(9)  James. 


APPENDIX  181 

(10)   The  ascension. 

(Possibly)    (11)   Great  Commission. 

4.  Character  of  appearances. 

(1)  Appears  and  disappears  suddenly  (Luke  24:  31,  51) ; 
in  their  midst  (Luke  24:  36;  John  20:  14;  21:  4); 
closed  doors  (John  20:  19,  26). 

(2)  No  immediate  recognition  (Luke  24:  16-31;  John 
20:14;  21:4-7);  identity  doubted  (Matt.  28:17); 
thought  a  spirit  (Luke  24:  37) ;  timid — no  one  dared 
address  (John  21:  12);  fell  down  and  gave  divine 
honors  (John  20:  17-28;   Matt.  28:  9-17). 

Contra.  Jesus  eats  (Luke  24:  39-43);  Jesus  walks 
(Luke  24:  30);  sits  at  table  (John  21:  13);  shows 
hands  and  side  (John  20:27);  some  desire  to 
touch  (John  20:17;  Matt.  28:9);  others  urge  to 
stay   (Luke  24:  29). 

5.  The  resurrected  body. 

(1)  Lazarus  and  Jesus — difference. 

(2)  Where  during  forty  days? 

(3)  Disciples'  faith  in  future  life. 

(4)  Resurrected  body  necessarily  materialized  for  evi- 
dence. 

(5)  Paul's  testimony — 1  Corinthians  15. 

6.  Modern  science  and  the  resurrection. 

7.  The  three  positions. 

(1)  Physical  resurrection. 

(2)  Spiritual  resurrection  —  Keim,  Lake  —  spiritual 
visions  materialized. 

(3)  Semi-spiritual — Orr. 

Texts. 

1  Corinthians  15;  Acts  17:  16-34;  2  Tim.  4:  6-8;  Heb. 
13:  20,  21;  Rom.  6:  4-6;   Gospel  accounts. 

References. 

"The  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,"  Orr;  Lives  of 
Christ  by  Gilbert,  Rhees,  Andrews,  Strauss,  Keim,  Renan, 
Weiss. 


182  APPENDIX 

VI.  Christianity  and  the  Futuee. 

1.  The  unending  problem.     Plato,  Kant. 

2  The  situation  to-day. 

(1)  The  viev/point  of  pure  science.  Munsterberg, 
Edison. 

(2)  Viewpoint  of  philosophy.  Eucken,  Ward,  Bergson, 
Balfour. 

(3)  Pseudo-science.  Psychical  research — Hodgson; 
Myers;  Spiritualism;   Theosophy. 

3.  Practical  bearings   of  the   question.     The   teaching   of 

Karma. 

4.  Christianity  the  guardian  of  personal  immortality. 

5.  Conditional  immortality. 

(1)  "Immortality  of  soul"  not  in  Bible. 

(2)  Athenagoras. 

(3)  Jewish  doctrine.  Resurrection  of  wicked  (Matt. 
25:  31;  Rom.  2:  5-10;  John  5:  28,  29;  Acts  24:  15; 
Rev.  20:  12,  15). 

(4)  Immortality— 1  Cor.  15:  53,  54;  Rom.  2:  7;  2  Tim. 
1:  10. 

References. 

"Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death," 
F.  W.  H.  Myers;  "The  Winning  of  Immortality,"  Fred- 
erick Palmer;  "The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Immortality," 
S.  D.  F.  Salmond;  "The  Evolution  of  Immortality,"  Mc- 
Connell;  "The  Assurance  of  Immortality,"  Harry  Emer- 
son Fosdick;   "Our  Immortality,"  Maeterlinck. 

PART  III. 

Formal  Christianity. 

I.  The  Church. 

1.  What  is  the  church? 

2.  The  New  Testament  idea. 

3  The  historical  development  idea. 
4.  The  church  in  the  Gospels. 


APPENDIX  183 

5  The  church  in  the  Acts. 

6  Paul's  idea  of  the  church. 

7  The  necessity  for  the  church. 

8  Analysis  of  church  (Acts  2:  42). 

(1)  Doctrine — creed. 

(2)  Fellowship — polity — social   features. 

(3)  Breaking  of  bread — ordinance. 

(4)  Prayers — mystical  element. 

Texts. 

Matt.  16:  17-20;  Acts  2:  42-47;  8:3;  14:  23;  1  Cor.  16: 
19;  2  Cor.  1:  1;  Gal.  1:  2;  Phil.  3:  6;  Col.  1:  18;  1  Tim. 
3:  15;  Rev.  1:  4;   1  Cor.  12:  27;   Eph.  1:  23. 

References. 

"Organization  of  the  Early  Christian  Churches," 
Hatch;  "Christian  Ecclesia,"  Hort;  "Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles"  (1884),  Harnack;  "The  Early  Church," 
Horton. 

II.  The  Evolution  of  Creed. 

1    The  confession  of  Peter. 

2.  The  apostles'  creed. 

3.  Early  sects  in  church. 

(1)  Greek  party. 

(2)  Jewish  party. 

(3)  Heresy  in  Paul's  day. 

(4)  Heresy  in  John's  day. 

(5)  Gnosticism. 

(6)  Ebionites. 

4.  Creeds  ^arise  to  suppress  heresy, 

5.  Nicene  Creed.     Trinity. 

6    Athanasian  Creed.     Holding  church's  belief  a  necessity 
of  salvation. 

7.  The  failure  of  man-made  creeds. 

8.  Apostles'  creed. 

(1)  God. 

(2)  Jesus  Christ. 

(3)  Virgin  birth. 


184  APPENDIX 

(4)  Sufferings  and  death. 

(5)  Descent  into  Hades. 

(6)  Resurrection. 

(7)  Ascension. 

(8)  Intercession. 

(9)  Judgment. 

(10)  Holy  Ghost. 

(11)  Holy  Catholic  Church. 

(12)  Communion  of  saints. 

(13)  Forgiveness  of  sins. 

(14)  Resurrection  of  body. 

(15)  Life  everlasting. 

9.  Nicene  Creed. 

(1)  Of  all  things  visible  and  invisible. 

(2)  Born  of  Father  before  all  ages.     Consubstantial  to 
the  Father,  etc. 

(3)  Incarnate  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

(4)  (Descent  omitted.) 

(5)  Holy  Ghost  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son. 

(6)  One  holy  catholic  and  apostolic  church. 

(7)  (Omitted.) 

(8)  One  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins. 

(9)  I  look  for  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

(10)  Life  of  the  world  to  come. 

10.  Tridentine. 

(1)  Sacraments. 

(2)  Mass. 

(3)  TransubstantiatioB. 

(4)  One  kind  legitimate. 

(5)  Scriptures  interpreted  according  to  church  tradi- 
tions. 

(6)  Roman  Church. 

(7)  St.  Peter. 

(8)  Council  proceedings. 

(9)  Justification. 

(10)  Original  sin. 


APPENDIX  185 

11.  Post-tridentine. 

(1)  Immaculate  conception. 

(2)  Infallible  pope. 

(3)  This  true  Catholic  faith  out  of  which  no  one  can 
be  saved  I  vow  and  swear,  etc. 

Referexces. 

"History    of    Christian    Church,"    Schaff;    "Ministerial 
Priesthood,"  Moberly. 

III.  Creeds  of  the  Churches  To-day. 

1.  Attitude  of  Roman  Catholicism. 

(1)  Modernism. 

(2)  Pius  X. 

2.  Current  Protestantism. 

(1)  Episcopalianism.     Liberal  interpretation. 

(2)  Congregationalism. 

(3)  Presbyterianism. 

(4)  Methodism.    North  and  South. 

(5)  Baptist  Churches.     Southern. 

(6)  The  Federal  Council. 

Reference. 
"Churches  of  the  Federal  Council,"  Macfarland. 

IV.  Ordinance. 

1  Definition. 

2  Distinction  from  creed. 

3  Ordinance  and  sacrament. 

4  The  two  ordinances  of  Christ. 

5.  The  necessity  for  the  ordinances. 

6.  The  twofold  side  of  the  ordinances. 
7    Mistaken  views  of  the  ordinances. 

(1)  Protestant  extreme.    Quakerism. 

(2)  Catholic  extreme.    Sacramentarianism. 

Texts. 
Matt.  28:  19;   Mark  16:  16;   Luke  22:  17-20;   Acts  2:  38- 
41;    8:  36-39;    John   3:  5;    Rom.   6:  3,   4;    Col.   2:  12;    Gal. 
3:  27;  1  Pet.  3:  21;  Tit.  3:  5. 


186  APPENDIX 


V.  The  First  Ordinance. 

1.  Baptism  defined. 
2    Question  involved. 

(1)  Design. 

(2)  Subjects. 

(3)  Action. 

3.  Baptism  in  history. 

4.  Mistaken  views  of  baptism. 
5    Characteristics. 

(1)  Greek   equivalents. 

(2)  The  question  of  translation. 
(3)   The  "Century"  definition. 

Texts. 

Matt.  28:  19;  Mark  16:  16;  Acts  2:  38;  8:  36-39;  Rom. 
6:  3,  4;   Col.  2:  12;   1  Pet.  3:  21;   Tit.  3:  5. 

References. 

"Moral  and  Spiritual  Aspects  of  Baptism,"  Aylsworth; 
"Christian  Baptism,"  Campbell;  "The  Form  of  Baptism," 
Briney;  "The  Campbell-Rice  Debate;"  "Christian  Bap- 
tism," Kershner. 

VI.  Baptism:    Its  Mob.\i.  and  Spikitual  Aspect. 

1.  The  two  extremes.     Pedobaptist  and  legalist. 

2.  The  pedobaptist  idea  of  significance  derived  from  pre- 

Christian  sources. 

3.  Legalist  idea  a  similar  survival. 

4.  Moral  and  spiritual  elements  involved. 

(1)  Faith. 

(2)  Obedience. 

(3)  Symbolism. 

(4)  Complete  self-surrender. 

5.  Is  there  a  mystical  element? 

6.  The  new  birth  in  John.     Baptismal  regeneration. 

7.  Necessity  for  proper  understanding  of  baptism. 

8.  Old  Testament  deductions.     Hyssop-sprinkling,  circum- 

cision, etc. 


APPENDIX  187 

Texts. 
Rom.  6:  3,  4;  Col.  2:11-13;  Tit.  3:  5;  1  Pet.  3:  21. 

Reference. 
"Moral  and  Spiritual  Aspects  of  Baptism,"  Aylsworth. 
VII.  Baptism.     Proper  Subjects. 

1.  Question  depends  upon  presuppositions. 

2.  Scriptural  authority  lacking. 

3.  The  argument  from  expediency. 

4.  History  of  infant  baptism. 

5.  Infant  baptism  to-day. 

6.  Household  baptisms. 
7    Infant  dedication. 

Refeeexces. 

"History  of  Infant  Baptism,"  Wall;  "Campbell-Rice 
Debate." 

VIII.  The  Lord's  Supper. 

1.  The  element  of  confession. 

2.  The  memorial  element. 

3.  As  an  ordinance. 

4.  The  mystical  element. 

5.  The  social  element. 

6.  Different  theories  of  the  eucharist. 

(1)  The  Roman  Catholic.     Transubstantiation. 

(2)  The  Lutheran.     Consubstantiation. 

(3)  The  Zwinglian.     A  memorial  only. 

(4)  The  Restoration  position. 

7.  Manner  of  administration. 

8.  Frequency  of  administration. 

References. 

"The  Christian  System,"  Campbell;  "The  Early 
Church,"  Horton;  "Scheme  of  Redemption,"  Milligan; 
"History  of  the  Reformation,"  D'Aubigne;  "The  Lord's 
Supper,"  Brandt 


188  APPENDIX 

IX.  The  Element  of  Polity. 

1.  The  Episcopal. 

2.  The  Presbyterian. 

3.  The  Congregational. 

4.  The  Catholic. 

5.  Modifications  of  these  four  forms. 

6.  Polity  and  the  Restoration  movement. 

(1)  The  convention  problem. 

(2)  The  Louisville  plan. 

(3)  The  second  Louisville  plan. 

(4)  The  Mellinger  plan. 

(5)  The  regional  idea. 

References. 

"Ministerial  Priesthood"  (Episcopalian),  Moberly; 
"History  of  the  Disciples,"  Moore;  "The  Christian  Eccle- 
sia,"  Hort;  "Organization  of  the  Early  Church,"  Hatch; 
"Religions  of  Authority  and  the  Religion  of  the  Spirit," 
Sabatier;    "Church  Polity,"  Hayden. 

X.  Spiritual  Elements. 

1.  Worship. 

2.  Prayer. 

3.  The  element  of  music. 

4.  Ritual. 

5.  Art  in  religion. 

6.  The  non-progressive  idea. 

7.  The  place  of  the  mystical  in  religion. 

8.  The  Holy  Spirit. 

References. 

"Great  Souls  at  Prayer,"  Tileston;  "The  Meaning  of 
Prayer,"  Fosdick;  "With  Christ,"  Murray;  "Alone  with 
God,"  Garrison;  "The  Holy  Spirit,"  Garrison;  "The  Life 
of  Christ  in  Art,"  Farrar;  "Mysticism  in  Christianity," 
Fleming;  "Prayer,"  Hastings;  "The  Necessity  for  Inter- 
cessors," Mott. 


APPENDIX  189 

XI.    CONVEKSION. 

1.  Meaning  of  word. 

2.  Intellectual  elements. 

3.  Emotional  elements. 

4.  Volitional  elements. 

5.  Faith. 

6.  Repentance. 

7.  Baptism. 

8.  The  Holy  Spirit. 

9.  New  Testament  conversions. 

References. 

"Sermons,"  Franklin;  "Sermons,"  McGarvey;  "Scheme 
of  Redemption,"  Milligan;  "Varieties  of  Religious  Experi- 
ence," James;   "Twice-Born  Men,"  Begbie. 

XII.  Christian  Union. 

1.  The  cause  of  schism. 

2.  The  history  of  schism. 

3.  Efforts  toward  unity. 

4.  The  Lambeth  Quadrilateral. 

5.  The  Federal  Council. 

6.  The  World  Conference. 

7.  Present  status. 

8.  The  Restoration  plea. 

References. 

"Message  of  the  Disciples  for  the  Union  of  the 
Church,"  Ainslie;  "The  Early  Church,"  Horton;  "That 
They  All  May  be  One,"  Wells;  "Christian  Union,"  Garri- 
son; "Historical  Documents,"  Young;  "How  to  Promote 
Christian  Union,"  Kershner. 


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